I got a phone call on Saturday asking me if I would be the speaker at something. I was unclear quite sure what it was but she was my student and said that perhaps I could speak to them about something since this was their first time away to school. I didn't realize that it would be advertised all over campus and that there would be over 100 people there and someone from the student newspaper.
I decided that I would talk about light. It was quite a long talk--I was to take 1 1/2 hours. I talked about how light and dark cannot be in the same place at the same time, that just a small light can give us direction, etc. then I transferred my theme to the personal light we can and should be. I drew (with the help of Yahoo Images) a picture of a Chinese girl. I colored it with my trusty pastels and then rubbed cooking oil on the back. When I shined a flashlight through it you could clearly see her face. Then I took a piece of black paper and held behind it and showed that there was no light from her face. I told them that we each have a light and when we are honest or forgiving or kind the light shows but when we are dishonest or unforgiving or unkind it is like something dark keeps the light from showing from us. I picked 12 suggestions for showing their light and talked about each.
After that I showed Johnny Lingo and talked about how he made Mahana's light shine and his was also shining. I lit a match and then lit a second with the first match and showed that when we share our light we don't lose light but get more light.
After I did a few "talking" activities with them and answered some questions. They gave me the flowers and some Chinese decorations that I hung outside our apartment door. Two girls walked me home and told me that I am the "best" teacher.
When I got home there was a text message on my cell phone from one of my male students. We were going to meet before and things got confused. This is the message that he wrote. "Dear Professor, Thank you for your forgiveness. i feel so sorry about tonight. You are a very kind, like my grandmother. I had learned so much from you. Not only how to improve my English also how to be a kind man, a light man. Thank you so much!"
That says it all. I hope that I was able to touch others, too.
3 comments:
Wow, what a neat experience! It was enough to make me tear up when I read it!
I think I would have liked to hear that talk!
Doesn't get much better than that, does it! It does sound like an amazing talk.
I'm not a bit surprised about that talk...what a great spirit you have and how fortunate your students are to have you. I feel very blessed to have you for a friend....
Thanks for being such a bright light.....
Linda
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