“Listen Up!”

Central Valley - At last week’s 10th Anniversary Rhythm and Rhyme celebration, event founder Michelle Gatzen Bulla read, for the first time on the R&R stage, one of her own creations. In response to a heart-to-heart discussion she’d had with her students after they watched the film, “More Than Sad: Suicide Prevention Education for Teachers and Other School Personnel,” she felt compelled to write what follows. Reflecting on the several tragedies that have occurred in the M-W district this past year, and endeavoring to explain to students why teachers teach, Bulla said, “it could have been written by any teacher.” Listen Up! by Michelle Gatzen Bulla Listen up: In our quest to reach out to you, to nurture you, to support you Through the hard times - life’s hard times - We have told you lots of things: What to look for Who to talk to When to ask for help That you should help each other That there are lots of signs of sadness, major depression and that sometimes there are no signs But you say we haven’t told you one thing : We haven’t told you NOT TO DO IT We haven’t put signs on the walls Like there are on bridges On cliffsides You say we need to be explicit, we need to make it clear So here it is, and be sure to listen up: Don’t do it! Perhaps you’re right. We haven’t come right out and screamed it. But we’ve been whispering it every minute You are our lives - our livelihoods, yes, true, but that’s not why we’re here - You are our hopes, our dreams, the voices of our future We come back here, voluntarily, to high school To high school! Who voluntarily comes back to high school every day? We come here, every day, To expand your minds, to carve new pathways in your thoughts and your dreams We come here to listen to you To give you a voice To give you a richer life To show you how exciting and wonderful and beautiful and charming and amazing it is to be alive, to be aware, to be “in the know,” to love and learn and grow and breathe fresh air We hurt with you, for you, for ourselves and our collective shortcomings and we know none of us can work miracles But we can all love, and appreciate, and support, and nurture and encourage each other As teachers, we do it every day, every minute of every class Of every lunch period Of every studyhall Of every moment we spend with you On the fields In club meetings In rehearsals In Pendragon roundtables In Amnesty bake sales In basketball games And swim meets And inductions And in our feedback on your schoolwork And in our allowances for your tardiness, your procrastinations, your “blips” on the road of your personal pursuit of excellence We love you and cherish you and work for you and your dreams. You know that you have a body and a mind but do you know you are so very much more than that? So listen up: Extend that love to each and every person on your path - you are your brother’s keeper, your sister’s keeper, your friend’s and siblings and parents’ and teachers and humanity’s and the earth’s keepers. It’s up to you to love each other and cherish each other and live with and for and by each other. Enlightenment isn’t a place or an age; you won’t find it over the next hill, when you lose five pounds or make the team or get into the “right” school. It’s inside you, in every breath, every moment. You’ll find it when you plant your bare feet in the mud, the sand, spread your toes and allow the vibrations of the earth to mingle with your own We teach you content, manners, social skills; we cry with you, laugh with you, encourage you and cheer for you. Do you hear it? the sound of our love for you? Walk through the halls, listen to the discourse in the classrooms, hear our desperate desire to help you grow, to teach you to cope, to make you think and feel and be yourself. It hurts to bury the dead. It always will. Love them, talk to them, remember them. Honor them by learning from them, loving anew because of them. And so, precious darlings, for whom we get out of bed at silly hours of the morning so that we can teach you how to love, to laugh, to learn, so that we can help you to grow: LISTEN UP, BECAUSE I’M GOING TO SPELL IT OUT NOW: OPEN YOUR ARMS AND EYES WIDE, BREATHE DEEP, AND ENGAGE IN YOUR LIFE; LIVE!