Reflecting on the School Year

I was sitting around on this sunny Sunday thinking about how, in a few weeks, the school year will end and I will actually have down time. YAY for me! Now there are still a few more engagements on my calendar, but most of my workshops and performances will wind down in the next week or two, and come mid June I will have submitted my grades for my college classes, and I am off for a lot of the summer- something I haven't done in years. Needless to say, I am excited about the prospect of summer off.

So, seeing as how I love math so much, I thought that I would try to figure out about how many students, that I have worked with/ performed for over the year, from Summer Camp until now. And surprisingly, the number was almost 3,000. Kinda crazy when you think about it really. That includes assemblies, workshops, university classes, etc... most were youth, however a small percentage of my offerings also included adults. This year I focused my work on schools rather than performing for grown ups, which was really rewarding for me but possibly sad for all the adults who were wondering when they would get to see me on the stage again.

Some people think I have dropped off or disappeared, but I have just entered into the school arena more. I prefer that for so many reasons, no smoky bars and drunken loud folks talking smack (not that every student is always sober, or that none of them smoke cigarettes...), no late nights... So instead I have worked with students from 11 specific k-12 schools, and through conferences and other happenings have also worked with students from countless other schools throughout the region. Pretty cool when I think about it actually, all those young minds under my influence for varying amounts of time. Don't worry, I am using my gifts for good, attempting to inspire and motivate folks through poetic verse and creative writing.

If this year's work was 3,000 I wonder what that number would look like if I could do the math for the last 10 years. I don't think that this year represents a higher number than previous years, especially ones where I performed more publicly, went on tour, went out of town more, etc... but let's just say that was the average. That would mean over 30,000 people, (which I think is a low estimate, since it doesn't account for touring or huge shows...)! Wow- watch out world. Each one teach one they say... I'm going for 100,000 or more! How's that for ambition!

I may not have a lot of grown up friends (cause I am a little bit of a homebody outside of work), but chances are high if you live in my town or nearby that someone you know who's in 4th/5th grade, middle school, or high school has seen me over the past few years. I had a couple of high school students in one workshop series this term who I had worked with back they were in elementary school.

So if you were to ask me what I was most proud of, other than obviously my two amazing children who I love dearly, I would have to say the scope of my work. See, I am not trying to take over the world, but helping empower the youth to be ready for the inevitable task of taking the reigns.