You Could Be Happy

Because it's too easy to blog about the chaos and crazy at school these days..

Story #1:
I was at the BofA ATM on 23rd and Mission just finishing up some transactions when I hear, "Ms. Chew?" I turned around and there was one of my old students, a senior from my first year teaching. (One of the bus-driver boys.) In the almost two years since he graduated and I last saw him, he graduated from UTI in Sacramento (definitely one of the most unfortunate acronyms a school can have) and is now working as a mechanic at the SF Honda dealership. Ok this is not the most exciting story, but it made me smile after a mess of the last few weeks I've been having. And it's the perfect precursor for..

Story #2:
After singing for service at church on Sunday, I was chatting with some friends and I hear, "Ms. Chew!" I turned around and there was one of my old students. (I have to admit that it took me about half of our conversation to remember his name.. and I feel kind of ashamed that in my head I went to Juan and Jose first. But c'mon, statistically it was a valid guess! He doesn't know I didn't remember his name, I figured it out before he caught me.) He'd been invited to church by a friend and was just as surprised as I was to see me/him there. (Don't know how to make that sentence work. Dang.)

A little background on this particular student--he first took my class as a junior. He failed and repeated it as a senior. He still failed the second time, not because he's not intelligent or a hard worker, but because he had so much going against him outside of school. I don't know everything about his situation, but I'm pretty sure he was basically raising his younger siblings and his parents were for all intents and purposes out of the picture. He was in an unhealthy relationship with another student (who also failed my class), was prone to skipping school (mostly what contributed to his failing), and try as he might, had some really bad days. But for all the hardship he had to deal with in his personal life, he was still a sweet, polite kid. He always appreciated what his teachers were doing for him and treated us all with great respect.

During his last year at the school, some of our staff got him to apply to an all boys boarding school up in Sonoma. He was so excited about this school. He would read me excerpts from the brochures they sent him. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced.. nestled in idyllic Sonoma County, far far away from the broken life he'd known growing up in the Mission. He applied, got accepted, and earned scholarship help to pay his way. That was the last I heard from him.

Fast forward to Sunday after service. He told me he's finishing up his super-senior year at his school in Sonoma. He's doing great. Finally graduating (better late than never!), getting a 4.0 gpa, and even getting involved in Young Life up there. Trying to get his little brother, who still lives in SF, to get plugged in to Young Life here. He wants to become a teacher, to spread God's love to teenagers and maybe teach them some academic stuff along the way (sound familiar? IKR?!?).

It was just so.. incredible? Awesome? Inspiring? Fantastic? Stupendous? (Having trouble with my words today) to see and hear about how well he's doing now. A part of me could be disappointed because what this new school is doing for him I couldn't do, but that's not at all how I feel. I'm ecstatic that he's been able to turn his life around and is in a much better place now. It's not very often that we, teachers of at-risk youth, get to hear stories with happy endings like this one. I'm gonna put this one in my pocket and save it for a rainy day