who watches the

stockholm syndrome

"This is the last time I'll abandon you...And this is the last time I will forget you...I wish I could."

this adventure

Life here is busy, and thinking about the end of this summer adventure is bittersweet. CTY is really a break from "real" life and a 7 week plunge into fantasy world. I look forward to being back home and with my family, but I'm going to miss the friends I've made and the structured days spent here (and even all the drama!). Here I am motivated by the success of my students. At home I have to conjure motivation from obscure places. 5 more days till the end of this adventure.

on being a teacher

After four and a half weeks of teaching talented and gifted middle and high school students, I can say that I enjoy being a mentor and I am happy to be looked up to. But there is a second almost more exhausting side to being a teacher though: adult drama.

I wasn't actually aware of all the gossip and bickering and situational weirdness that goes on in the adult world. It's really not too different from undergraduate age drama, with the exception that consequences are greater. I've witnessed everything from drinking incidents, to E.R. visits (unrelated to drinking), to ambiguous romantic relationships, to hostile work environments, etc. My experience here has become something I will definitely remember and learn from for a long time to come.

As a side note, while I enjoyed The Dark Knight, I wouldn't recommend the new X-Files movie.

REMINDER: Read "The Watchmen" (Graphic Novel).

don't speak

I forgot how frustrating it is to lose your voice. It's also kind of funny and amusing, and apparently cute, but mostly it's irritating. You become a kind of spectacle. You can't speak, so instead of listening to what you say, people watch you. Everyone around you is talking and laughing, but you cannot join in the conversation. Spoken language is one of our main means of getting others to do what we want. Without our speech we lose a certain amount of control.

First day of session 2 tomorrow.