Eyeliner Girls

Written 28 February 2006

I have a belief that the eyeliner girls (those girls who wear too much eyeliner and have experienced more crap than any person should have to handle) are able to go to college and be so much, but when I think of my college experience I wonder if there is a place for those who have been homeless, done drugs, been on probation, etc. Part of it is: Is there hope? Part is: Is there space for them in whatever transformed state they become? Part is: What type of transformation can be expected or is possible? Part is: Would they ever feel comfortable as their new self (or just them) in the world of the accomplished? Would they feel like they betrayed something in their past?

There is nothing wrong with being a hairdresser and tech school graduate, but there are not enough jobs for them all to be hairdressers and they all have so much potential to things they don't even consider within their grasp. I feel like the eyeliner girls so not actually think they have a choice, there are many roads available, and so they are selling themselves short by not acknowledging their self worth and their potential. But then I wonder what it would actually look like for the eyeliner girls to go to college and become the physicists, engineers, authors, architects, teachers, and accountants I know they could be and think they should be.

Joy!

This conversation made me so happy.

I hear one of my fav students shouting in the hall.
Me: (Kid's Name!),what are you doing?
She has a silly excuse. We chat a little.
Me: Where are you supposed to be?
C: In the computer lab... So what do you do in the teachers' room anyway?
Me: I do my homework.
C: Can you get me a soda?
The only soda machine is in the teachers' room.
Me: No.
C: Come on!
Me: Go to the computer lab...
She heads to the computer lab.
C: Will you get me a soda later?
Me: No.
C: Please????
Me: Maybe if you get an A like you deserve. You can do the work, I know you can! You do A work.
C: I tried. But I'm doing better. I have a C.
Me: I know. And you did a great job on your molecule poster. It was awsome!
She doesn't want to go into the computer lab, but comes bounding back over to me in the hall.
C: Did you really like it? It was good, wasn't it?
Me: Yeah, it was great! And it was your own work too. I could tell.
C: Yeah, it was! I didn't cheat!
She is all smiley and bubbly.
Me: No you didn't and it came out really well!
C: Thanks.
Me: Ok, now go to class.
C: Okay...
She relunctantly goes.

It was so great to see her so happy about her own work. She was so happy. It warmed my heart. I wish she would get A's because I know she can. I need to tell her that more often.