A humbling dose of creativity.

I have experienced an incredibly blessed life so far, and am reminded all too often through my students' personal challenges and experiences to keep things in perspective. In addition to the humbling doses of harsh life experiences that several of my students use as building blocks for moving their futures in more positive directions, I also have ample opportunities to observe and coach my students through their teen angst periods. This afternoon I stayed after school to be a guest in the Creative Writing class end of the year showcase. The students created their personal stories using an approach called Digital Storytelling. The theme was challenges. 

Several of the stories entailed heartbreaking topics including substance abuse, struggles with depression, suicide attempts, and sick parents. These stories were touching, of course. Two of the stories stood out over the rest. Both were fairly simple stories. One story was told by a male student who explained that visiting prisons as part of his church ministry programs was one of his biggest life challenges. His poignant story explained how time pauses for inmates, how he could tell the time period that the inmates who had been incarcerated for longer periods of time had entered into the prison system by their hair styles and experience with current technologies, and how his perception of the "type" of person that he would find in prison shifted. 

The second story was told by my student who invited me to the event. She started by sharing comments that a group of girls berated her with during her middle school years. A few of the comments were "Why is your butt so small; why are your eyes so big and head so small; how could you be black with a body like that" My eyes filled with tears as she shared these hateful words that I am sure she heard more than just once. Her voice did not quiver, nor did she fall into a cycle of despair. Instead, she responded by coming to the conclusion that she could do nothing to control the body type she had inherited, nor could she help that her features did not fit the standard of beauty that these girls expected. Her mature perspective uplifted her, and gave her the strength to stand-up to the thoughtless words that her peers threw at her. I felt touched truly touched by her story. Although she came out of the experience on the positive side, it made me sad that she had to hear so many unfair judgements.