Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Anonymous?

A word of explanation is in order.

One might wonder, upon reading the title of my blog, why someone who aspires to be published would say their legacy is given anonymously. The reason lies chiefly in the wellspring behind the writing.

My first job, love, aspiration and joy of this life has been teaching. I was one of those weird kids who knew at three what I would be when I grew up and never changed my story. By eighth grade I knew what my major would be in college.

I. Love. To. Teach.

During the time that I had a Facebook account, I had only one line in my "about me" section, and it never changed: My dream is to die anonymous and leave behind a legacy of students who change the world.

And my writing? It is a dream of its own; but a dream that grows out of my teaching. I don't teach because I write; but I do write because I teach.

If I am ever published, I guess I will have failed at the anonymous part. But I also know that my greatest legacy is in my students. They are my wellspring, the overflowing life that must be channeled somewhere - and where better than on the page? Nor can I predict where that legacy begins and ends, if it ends at all.

This is not to say that my blog will revolve around my students, though they may creep in from time to time. (They are rather persistent critters, after all.) But I draw enormous creative energy from them, and as a teacher I hope to pay them back in kind, one way or another. At the very least I intend to prepare them for bigger and better adventures that will, in turn, become legacies of their own. Legacies that outlive their creators, cascading forward into even further lives, with ever-growing boundaries.

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