19 1 / 2012
The Look:
Neatest thing happens this time of the year. From a place of comfort & continual patterns inside these classroom walls, these children know me and I know them to such an extent that on a cold & bright Thursday in January, I can extinguish an argument over a poorly placed bathroom in a floorplan drawn to analyze the personification in Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” with a clear of my throat and a narrowing of my eyes. The best part, for me, is their reaction: they are not scared, but checked. They move away and stop because not to would be disrespectful to me & to the relationship we’ve created since we met in August. And that bond, to a fourteen year old who isn’t sure of anything, is something they can get behind.
Just a look. I wish it carried the same weight wherever I went. I could make waves.
