MEMOIR
And Not Make Thoughts Your Aim
Put a clumsy teacher and a poem in one room, and my life is saved
“If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim” — If, Rudyard Kipling
In my first year of high school, I had a teacher by the name of Ms. Semidey for my literature class. Ms. Semidey was a wonderful teacher and an incredible person. One thing about her that might have been inconvenient at times is that she was disorganized. She was very disorganized!
Therefore, sometimes there wouldn’t be a lesson plan for the class. Other times, she’d forget to assign homework — which no one had a problem with until she started asking for that homework on the next day.
But the one inconvenient thing about her that brings you this story is that she often forgets to print enough classwork to accommodate for every student in her class.
“And lose, and start again at your beginnings” — If, Rudyard Kipling
While nearing the end of class one day, Ms. Semidey gave us an exercise to complete and submit to her as we exited the classroom. I was sitting exactly in the middle of the classroom — not in the back, not in the front, nor the laterals — but I…
