Lincoln Middle School

The year of 2011 will be unforgettable for me.  I joked around with the fact that I was a rabbit in the Chinese calendar and the rabbit year of 2011 positioned me at an advantage to win the lottery.
I never bought a lottery ticket.
I was busy looking for a teaching job where I could learn more about the Rio Grande Valley.
 
Fresh out of college, I applied in 2010 to a top ranked painting school in the United States and got accepted for its Post-Bac program which I did not accept.
At my interview with them in Chicago, I realized they misunderstood my border culture.  I had to correct them more than once about things I felt the world already knew about the border.  I talked and talked to get my point across.  After talking too much, I came to a pause and I wondered there for the first time: Do I really know my culture?
  
I began to criticize myself like I did to Octavio Paz's "Laberinto de la Soledad."  How could he talk about the Mexican identity and get some things wrong?  How could he get the borderland identity wrong?

I am in debt with Lincoln Middle School for the knowledge I gained in one year.

I would have not wanted another student population than the one I got this year.  I made it a purpose to talk about college every single day and lost track of how often I mentioned it until one of my students made a remark:  Why do you always talk about college?  We are in M-i-dd-le School.  I can still see some students taking a deep breath and others getting mad at this one student that was going to make me give a speech about, again, E-d-u-c-a-t-i-o-n.

I hope I made a difference.  A good difference.

I still remember my teachers and professors that acted ( and I am glad they did) like my mother or father guiding me in what I was to become.  My choice at the end but they gave me their valuable opinion about what steps provided more opportunities in the long run.  I love their on going selfishness of still supporting me in my life and career.

After finishing this school year, I am more humane.  I know I needed this for my writing and art to grow.

Now, it is the summer of 2012.  I am transforming what I create and with full knowledge of different perspectives of the Rio Grande Valley.  I give thanks to my students and my co-workers that gave me a good heart.

I did not win the lottery but I sure gained the good and the bad to create a good work of art.