End of an era...phase?
Just got back from Swing Out New Hampshire, a gig we have done for 8 years and like very much. It was enjoyable this time too, but it felt different. I've made a shift in my life's purpose and crossed some invisible line that I don't think I can go back over somehow. I teach High School. That's what I do. That's what I am now, and I didn't quite realize how much it meant to me until I went and did the thing that used to mean so much to me. Dancing. I still love to dance and teach dance, but it seems much less important than it used to. Somehow it's harder to care whether people with enough disposable income and time off to spend a week in the woods in New Hampshire are doing an 8 count Swing Out correctly. I mean, good for them. It's not their fault. Just a perspective thing, you know. I've got kids who are struggling with addiction, abuse, eating disorders and a littany of other horrors. It's life and death, literally. If I disappear from the dance scene or move to the periphery, a few might notice and maybe even be saddened by the loss, but if I left High School, some of my kids would lose the only peron who has ever given a shit about them in their entire lives. I feel the scales tipping.
2 Comments:
you have made a huge difference in the lives of many people in the dance community as well (like mine. no, really!). and let's not forget your brilliant (long may it live) stint as one of the "stewards" o' "THE DANCE".
please don't sell yourself short.
and um, happy birthday. :)
Dear Teacher Man,
Whatever paths you go down, you'll be changing lives. The happiness enjoyed by middle class pasty geeks from improving an eight count swingout may -- no pun intended -- undoubtedly pale in comparison to interventions and mentorship with at-risk kids. But it's happiness nonetheless. Thankfully, it all needn't be one or the other.
As long as contributing to the dance community brings YOU joy, I hope you continue to be a part of it.
P.S. -- My dad was a high school teacher for several decades and also changed... actually SAVED... many lives. He taught at a school populated by rich spoiled kids, but learned quickly that money didn't shield these kids from drugs, depression, bulimia, drunk drivers, abusive parents, and so on. Just an interesting counterpoint to the concept of "disadvantaged."
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