joshwriting (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
joshwriting) wrote2003-11-16 12:45 am
joshwriting) wrote2003-11-16 12:45 am
Entry tags:
owed thanks, part 1
retake - the computer ate the first version.
I talk with folks about why they should get up in the morning, why they should continue living. We discuss why I think they WILL make a difference in their lives and how important it is that they continue living.
How can I possibly know that they will be important, when they are so young now? I have shared that when I was 14, 15, 16, and more, that I thought I was worthless - that I WAS worthless... and that if I am not now, then perhaps I never was - and that THEY, too, could be (and are) mistaken about their own worth.
They respond "but, Josh - you ARE important! You DO change lives!"
*****
When I was a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a pair offellow students, Bruce and Alicia, each told me about the MIT High School Studies Program. (Bruce also told me about his delightful girlfriend, whom he wanted me to meet and whom he knew through the Program.)
As a result of these conversations, I went with Bruce to visit the MIT Program.
*****
(at this point, I am going to skip the 7 or 10 paragraphs I wrote a few minutes ago and had wiped out - but I will rewrite them later.)
*****
I have been with the folks at MIT ever since. I have entered my 30th year of affiliation with the MIT Educational Studies Program (ESP). Without ESP, I would not have gone into Gifted Education as a field. Without ESP, therefore, I would not have gone to Gifted Conferences. Nor, therefore, have run them. And therefore, I would not have met Tammy (Tamora Pierce, for those not payng attention to my life).
And without Tammy, I would not be involved with Sheroes.
Let alone that without ESP, I might not have survived until this age, because I not only found a career, I found life...
Thank you, Bruce. I have not talked to you in about a decade - and we were never as close after the 70's as we were during them. But you changed my life, without knowing it, without meaning to.
Thank you, Alicia. You, I lost track of (by your choice, I suspect) before you would even have graduated from college. But you STILL were instrumental in changing my life. It was an accident, I suppose. Fortuitous...
Thank you, Cathy. Of the three, you were most conscious of changing my life - and understood me the best. But even at that, I doubt that at the outset, you had a clue about the impact on me. Still, Cathy, thank you - my life was richer THEN for my knowing you - but richer by far, for your knowing ME.
I talk with folks about why they should get up in the morning, why they should continue living. We discuss why I think they WILL make a difference in their lives and how important it is that they continue living.
How can I possibly know that they will be important, when they are so young now? I have shared that when I was 14, 15, 16, and more, that I thought I was worthless - that I WAS worthless... and that if I am not now, then perhaps I never was - and that THEY, too, could be (and are) mistaken about their own worth.
They respond "but, Josh - you ARE important! You DO change lives!"
*****
When I was a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a pair offellow students, Bruce and Alicia, each told me about the MIT High School Studies Program. (Bruce also told me about his delightful girlfriend, whom he wanted me to meet and whom he knew through the Program.)
As a result of these conversations, I went with Bruce to visit the MIT Program.
*****
(at this point, I am going to skip the 7 or 10 paragraphs I wrote a few minutes ago and had wiped out - but I will rewrite them later.)
*****
I have been with the folks at MIT ever since. I have entered my 30th year of affiliation with the MIT Educational Studies Program (ESP). Without ESP, I would not have gone into Gifted Education as a field. Without ESP, therefore, I would not have gone to Gifted Conferences. Nor, therefore, have run them. And therefore, I would not have met Tammy (Tamora Pierce, for those not payng attention to my life).
And without Tammy, I would not be involved with Sheroes.
Let alone that without ESP, I might not have survived until this age, because I not only found a career, I found life...
Thank you, Bruce. I have not talked to you in about a decade - and we were never as close after the 70's as we were during them. But you changed my life, without knowing it, without meaning to.
Thank you, Alicia. You, I lost track of (by your choice, I suspect) before you would even have graduated from college. But you STILL were instrumental in changing my life. It was an accident, I suppose. Fortuitous...
Thank you, Cathy. Of the three, you were most conscious of changing my life - and understood me the best. But even at that, I doubt that at the outset, you had a clue about the impact on me. Still, Cathy, thank you - my life was richer THEN for my knowing you - but richer by far, for your knowing ME.
no subject
*hugs*
no subject
I am also unselfishly glad for the joy that you seem to have gotten out of knowing so many people and experiencing so many wonderful things and thoughts and discussions.