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Showing posts with label worries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worries. Show all posts

11 September 2011

Remembering Ayer

I feel like I've been a different person since we moved to Costa Rica. I feel like I don't really know myself, like I can't trust myself. That's a hard thing. Part of it - most of it - is my self-diagnosed seasonal affective disorder; the cold and rain are really getting to me.
Another part is just missing. Missing family and friends, missing hot water, missing the little things....
The rest?
Well, let's just say that I keep a lot of things inside. I keep going. Al mal tiempo, buena cara. Lift your chin, throw your shoulders back, and walk with a confidence you don't feel. It's hard; it's supposed to be hard. Get over it and get on with it.
So this is what I do, day after day, month after month.
This isn't about me. The work isn't for me. So I push this aside and keep going. And today talking to B about this, he makes me wonder if this is the right way to go about it or not. I don't know.
I don't know.

I stumbled across this post - nearly four years old - and remembered how hard that time was. This time is also hard. Really hard. And the poem? It still speaks to me. So here it is again:

Ayer - historia de un vuelo 

Ayer lo vi.
Ayer, domingo, aunque él no lo sabía.
Lo vi con las alas estrechadas
flotando sobre las corrientes de aire que yo
jamás conoceré.
Lo vi y en ese momento,
con el viento fresco de otoño molestándome los ojos,
sentí una nostalgía tan profunda.
Nostalgía casi inapropiada
porque nunca he conocido lo que se siente
allá.
Arriba.
Lejos de todo, de todos, de la gravedad que me mantiene aquí
estancada.
Pero en ese momento, viéndolo flotando
sin mover esas alas enormes,
qué celos me han entrado.
Es lo único que anhelo.
Lo único que anhelé ayer, lo único que sigo anhelando:
flotar
sobre esas mismas corrientes de aire
sentir ese vientecito molestándome los ojos y llorar sin pena sabiendo
que allá nadie me verá.
Nadie me dirá que
sobreviviré.
Que saldré de ésta.
Que puedo encontrar algo - alguien - mejor.
A él nadie le dice eso.
Cuando viene ese viento
a agitarle las lágrimas, él las puede soltar
sin pena alguna.
Qué libertad plena.
Ayer lo vi
y mi alma se encogió, adolorida por el anhelo,
la nostalgía,
los celos.
Lo quise seguir hasta allá
hasta el cielo inmenso, azul y frío
en esta época (noviembre, el mes más solitario de todos),
y volar.
Volar, volar, volar hasta escaparme de su recuerdo,
hasta escaparme de mi debilidad tan obvia y vergonzosa,
hasta escaparme del dolor que me ahoga.
Y mientras volara, lloraría.
¿Lloraría?
¿Al frente de tal libertad?
¿Lloraría?
Quizás no.
No, no.
Solamente me quedaría volar para
poder aprender a respirar
nuevamente,
para aprender a querer nuevamente,
para aprender a ser
igualita a él.
Ayer lo vi.
Y hoy me sostiene ese recuerdo.
Estoy estrechando alas metafóricas,
flotando sobre corrientes que me suben y me bajan.
Sobreviviré.
Eso lo supe desde un principio.
Pero lo que quiero no es sobrevivir, sino
vivir.
Vivir en una libertad plena.
Respirando profundamente del aire que me sostiene
sin importarme lo que me digan.
Si me toma meses de supervivencia para
que llegue la vida, que así sea.
Días, meses, años
- ay, Diosito mío, que no sean años -
de supervivencia, esperaré.
Porque estas alas algún día me
llevarán lejos de aquí.
Flotaré.
Escaparé.
Viviré.
Como lo anhelé ayer.

15 April 2009

Five

Days until I find out from Teach for America.
The nerves....

21 August 2008

Own worst enemy

This is something that I've been thinking about for a long time, and I've been meaning to write about it for quite awhile (see "Hypothetical"), but I just hadn't gotten around to it.
Tonight, however, I've got John Legend on iTunes, and I'm inspired partly by him, and partly by the time I've had to think.

First: this area where I'm living feels so *white*. It's been a loooong time since I've been somewhere that isn't crazy diverse, and as a brown-skinned woman, it's a comfort to know that there are people who look like me around. It makes me feel safer. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but my fellow minorities, but we don't have the luxury of not noticing those kinds of things. I'm aware of these things, and with the recent news about the teens here killing a Mexican man basically for being Mexican, I'm a little worried.

Anyway, that's not the direction I was going to take with this post, because it doesn't really have to do with the violence inflicted on minorities, but rather on the violence and oppression we inflict on our own people.

Yes, we've still got to deal with racism, discrimination, and a real fear of how people might react towards our otherness. No matter what people say, things haven't changed that much - racism is just more hidden now. It continues to be a systematic, endemic thing in this country, a presence just as real and as evil as any other form of oppression or injustice. I'm not saying that there isn't a real need for racial healing and reconciliation here, because there IS. There absolutely is. That said, how much do we as minorities turn on our own people?

I think I first started thinking about this in earnest after watching "American Gangster". It was a good movie, don't get me wrong; the story pulls you in, and Denzel Washington is just so stinkin' good. The thing is, as I'm sitting there falling in love with his character, wanting him to get away with everything, and getting caught up in the sexiness of organized crime, it occured to me that while Frank Lucas's life is being built up, countless other lives are being destroyed by his product.
He's using this crime syndicate to show that a Black man can be succesful and run his own organization, but this is at the expense of all these other Black lives which are being consumed by heroin.
There's an allure, an attractiveness, a sexiness in that gangster lifestyle. Otherwise, movies like "American Gangster", "Scarface", and "The Godfather" wouldn't be the icons they are. There's something so smooth and so cool in the way we portray these men. And it's not just in movies, music and popular novels are also filled with these gangster ideals; it's part of American culture. And we buy into it.
It's not a matter of life imitating art. This is a true story, and organized crime was around before these movies and rap and reggaetón came into being. As minorities, we turn on our own people in search of that prestige. Frank Lucas wasn't taking his cheap heroin to exclusive neighborhoods; he was getting rich off of poor Blacks and Latinos: people who looked like him and his wife. And the man who started his empire to be free of the control of white America made slaves of his own people.

When I was working in DC this summer, we had several big incidents at the Rec Center. One staff member was physically assaulted, another was held up at gunpoint, and a man was shot on the same block. We keep doing these things to our own people. You see it all the time: gang violence, Black-on-Black crime, wealthier Latinos who exploit undocumented Latinos....
How can we expect to make headway if we keep our own people down? How can we fight for justice and equality when we're so busy turning on our own? How can we ever free this nation from the ugliness of racism if we're determined to be our own worst enemies?

It's so frustrating. If all of us minorities, in every shade of non-white skin, would get together, if we'd stop fighting eachother as well as our own people, we'd be so much more effective at bringing about profound changes in this country. Do I believe it's possible? I don't know. I'm a bit of a cynic, but, my God, I hope it's possible.

29 May 2008

Más es3

Yesterday N. commented on my appearance at Friday's Senior/Faculty game: "Oooh, Ms. S! I saw you there with a friiiieeeend." I'd gone with B. Apparently, people noticed. Haha.

Today, A. invited me to her graduation party on the 14th. BK will probably be in town, but I feel compelled to stop by. I do love that kid....

In other news, I'm stressed beyond belief. Seriously.

I'm making a list and giving it up. It's not mine to deal with anymore. Deep breath, FJ, and let. it. go.

1. Exams.
2. Two-hour blocks.
3. Grading.
4. My app.
5. Summer job situation.
6. Money.
7. Ticket to LA.
8. C.'s wedding.
9. C.'s wedding conflicting with the summer job situation.
10. No, really, money.
11. My stupid heart.
12. My kid's knowledge of the subjunctive.
13. Post exam evals.
14. Graduation.
15. Cleaning out my classroom.
16. Not having my classroom during planning to clean it out.
17. Lack of workouts.
18. Overwhelming desire for more chocolate.
19. Messed up phone.
20. Placement exams.
21. Professional leave and sub plans.
22. My birthday.
23. Family.
24. Lack of privacy.

Okay. Another deep breath - I'm letting it go.

Feeling better already....

12 May 2008

IB therefore...

I need a good workout to destress today, but first:

One of my students didn't show up for the IB exam today. I saw him walking down the hall with this sheepish smile, laughing to himself.

Me: "J, why aren't you in the exam?!"
J: "Haha, I'm late."
Me: (Dumbfounded, mouth agape, trying to keep my cool....)
J: "I can make it up tomorrow, right?"
Me: "No. There's no make up exam, J."
J: (Face falling)Oh.

Oh, I was LIVID.

You do all you can, and this is how it goes down.

And my favorite part: When his classmates returned and I broke out the cookies and candy (a reward for a long day), he was one of the first to help himself.

Figures....

¿Qué se puede hacer...?

02 May 2008

es3

Worst day.

First: Drama. The unnecessarily dramatic kind.

Second: Senioritis. The overwhelming, paralyzing kind.

Third: Pain. The razor-dragging-itself-down-my-insides kind.

Fourth: Lock down. The "This is not a drill" kind.

It takes a lot to scare me, but that message over the intercom fifteen minutes before the end of the school day did it for me. Heart fluttering into my throat; breathe, take control, you're in charge. Kids into the corner, sitting, quiet. Door locked, lights out: check, check.
Wait.
Minutes slip by.
"Ignore any bells or fire alarms"
More minutes.
- Ms. S?- -Yes?- -I need to go downstairs.- -I can't let you go downstairs. Your kids are okay; they're being taken care of.-
Sighs of frustration.
More minutes.
Noise from somewhere, no gunshots - good sign?
Minutes, minutes, minutes....

"All clear."

Release.

Breathe.

And the trembling subsides, heart descends to chest, sweat dries.



This year, this year.... We had weekly bomb threats for a while. More fights, more threats, a stabbing, this....

Oh, but it's May. Ya casi se ve la luz.

19 February 2008

Mrs. West...

This seemed appropriate for today:


"I don't know if you got a man or not, if you've made plans or not, if God put me in your plans or not...." Go ahead, Mr. West.

Sixth block students rocked my world with their funniness. I love them all.

Observation and faculty meeting tomorrow. Parent conference, Thursday. The reality of living with my mother again, daily.
*sigh*
It is what it is.

Ah, and to all the haters, I love me some Kanye. He's arrogant. He's cocky. BUT, he's freakin' talented, and I think he's one sexy, sexy man. I mean, that smile...

02 February 2008

Moving....

I'm exhausted. Thursday rocked, Friday sucked, and I'm moving this weekend.

Not moving everything, mind you, just all the essentials. I'll be back for the furniture later.

This is all part of my plan to save money for grad school, which will begin in August. Geez, there is something absolutely terrifying about moving back in with the parents. I've been gone since I was 18 and I'm now 25, nearly 26. It's been a loooong time of no supervision, coming and going as I please, and listening to cds with parental advisories.

My parents are SO Puerto Rican. Sometimes I worry that I'll have to answer to them about every dime I spend and everything I do. Did I say sometimes? I worry about that A LOT. Don't get me wrong, my parents are wonderful people - my mother is one of my best friends - but they are still parents. They don't always remember that they've already done their job, and done it well.

So yeah, basically, I'll be around less often as I transition.

Wish me luck!