They grow up...

This is an excerpt from an email I received today, from a former student (both he and his twin brother were in our first class of students, and are high school freshmen now). They were always great kids, but there's something about this email that just sounds so mature:

my brother and i have some exciting news. we both have been chosen along with about 18 other students from my school to go to Colombia university to participate in a research lab. to prepare for this we learned how to use micropipetters, and how to extract DNA (from strawberries) im looking forward to it (were going on wednesday)
i am taking the living environment regents on June 21st and i think im going to do well. i've done well on all the practice sheets.
well i would like to know if on regents week my brother and i could visit. i would like to know how the school is doing, and maybe give some advice to the incoming freshmen.

I can't wait to see them!

*****

I am so confused about the exchange and what I want from my school and my colleagues right now. In the past week, my principal and I had our falling-out (the ice is thawing, slowly, but still), and various of our kids had three - THREE - fights in the neighborhood after school. The third one involved hundreds of our students mobbing the street to watch. (After which my principal screamed at three of my colleagues... none of whom was to blame for the events in any way, because no adult was to blame... though everyone seemed eager to point fingers). *sigh* How can I send a stranger from another country into the middle of all this? There's a part of me that thinks I should stay in NYC next year, find another place to work, and screw it all. Anxious and excited has become anxious and... anxious.

*****

In the meantime, there's always the beach.

*****

Another friend begins blogging... she's writing about arts events, the kind that occur d*mn far off-Broadway. Expect wildly inappropriate pirate musicals and lots of puppetry.