My sister is a real-life super hero…. one of the few, the proud, the under-appreciated… she is fighting on the front lines as a fourth grade school teacher…. I am constantly in awe of her infinite, impossible kindness and bulletproof patience and stamina… it is truly a wondrous sight to behold. Today, I got a tiny peek into her frazzling, chaotic world for one short afternoon.
This week, she is teaching her class about entrepreneurialism… and invited me to visit her classroom as a guest speaker, to give the kids an inspirational TED talk about music and art and how one can make a living doing what he loves to do… and I was happily prepared to give the “if you can dream it, you can do it” speech…
Once I arrived at her school, I passed through the security checkpoint and peeled off the layers of cautious eyeballs in the front office, then was led through the campus by my personal, 4th grade student escort… It felt strange at first… to invade this private little universe… like I was stomping and traipsing through someone’s perfect, precious garden… at the same time, I was distracted and overcome by how small and undersized everything was. Like everything in life, I guess… until you live through it, the immediate world you’re in seems super huge… until you get far away… or older… or grown…
As I first entered the classroom, all the kids turned around in their seats and broke out into a tiny-handed swell of applause… so polite and excited and well-behaved…
I gave my inspirational speech and life story, then opened up the floor to let the kids ask questions… important questions that I could answer and profoundly effect their lives forever…
“Do you know Michael Jackson?”
“Do you know Lady Gaga?”
“Do you know President Obama?”
(when I answered ‘no’ to this, much of the class groaned with disheartened disappointment)
“Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?”
“Is it true that all musicians are undependable?”
“Why does your voice sound weird?”
“What was your first inspiration to start playing music?”
“When do you go to sleep?”
“Do you know any magic tricks?”