Ever felt completely absurd?
Mountain Connection, September 27th, 2021
Sometimes, after a full day of class, I feel a bit absurd. Let me explain. First period, I go to my Global Issues and Politics senior seminar, in which we discuss the morality of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – heavy stuff. Then, second period, I walk over to Spanish 1, playing on the ukulele and singing a song about telling “la hora” (time) en español. I have a quick break, and then I’m off to another section of Geopolitical Studies, in which we have a guest speaker – an ex-Navy Seal who served in Vietnam and later traveled the world learning about Latin America and Africa. I start to give his introduction for my class: “Please welcome Mr. _______, a highly experienced individual and a lumbrera completa en … wait I mean to say … am I speaking Spanish? … how do you say lumbrera in English?” Whoops. Embarrassing.
After that, my Spanish 4 class immediately begins. Today we will start with a conversation on the Spanish flu of 1918 and then learn the pasos básicos of salsa – genial! By the end of the day, I take a deep breath and exclaim to no one in particular, “Wow I live in complete absurdity. I started the day teaching about nuclear war, then moved on to sing in Spanish about telling time. And, I can’t even tell when I am speaking English and when I am speaking Spanish in class anymore.”
Mason, one of my students, quickly responds. “Kevin, or Profe” (for he takes both GPS and Spanish with me) “I think the real absurdity is that Hawaiian shirt you are wearing.”
From doing chores, to attending class, to traveling the world, to building a fire – at SMS, we might ask a little bit of everything from you too!