Passion from the Sidelines
In the six years that I knew my father-in-law before he passed away, he spoke of how he was recruited for the Randolph Macon College basketball team when he was a senior at Douglas Freeman High School. Paul Webb, the coach of RMC, went to Freeman to recruit some basketball players. He didn’t like what he saw that day, but he did like one kid. That kid was standing on the sidelines, waving a towel in the air over his head, cheering the team on with his loud, boisterous voice. That kid was my father-in-law, Jay Pace, and was the first person to be recruited as a manager at Randolph Macon.
Each weekend, I have the opportunity to watch my own seven year-old son Jack play basketball. While I do like to watch him play, what I like more is watching him when he’s not playing. At seven, it’s hard to keep the attention of the kids when they’re not playing in the game. Most sit on the sidelines and talk or squirm in their seats. Yet, when Jack’s on the sidelines, he is always standing, cheering on his teammates. He can talk about every play in great detail after the game. Jack reminds me so much of what I envisioned my father-in-law to be like when he was recruited to manage the basketball team at Randolph Macon. Both of them have a passion--even when they are not the center of attention, even when they’re not playing the game.
This month, I want to talk to you about what it means to live passionately. I had a student ask me today why I keep coming back to Atlee day after day. What an easy question for me to answer. I return because I am passionate about what I do. I enjoy being with you on a daily basis. I am not afraid to make fun of myself when I mess up, and I know that you might be the only audience who will humor me with my Pace puns. I love seeing you grow from unsure about something to completely confident. My passion lies in watching you write and learn and think and change.
Right before he died, Steve Jobs recorded a speech where he asked, “If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?” What a great question. To me the answer is yes. It is always yes. This is what it means to live passionately. So, I thank you for the passion you exert on a regular basis in my classroom.
Juniors, you demonstrated your passion in writing original poems on issues of social injustice.
You also have just finished their first major IB assessment--the individual oral commentary. You spoke eloquently for 6-8 minutes on a Langston Hughes poem, a feat you never thought you would accomplish when I initially told you about this assessment in September. During what I deemed as "Langston Hughes Week," many of my colleagues were asking how I could listen to 58 commentaries--19 hours of listening. Yet, it’s a beautiful thing to hear your students so well versed in what you’ve taught them. Passion was there, for sure. The hard work, the hours of practice, the review games, truly paid off.
Seniors in TOK, you are about to finish the TOK course this month with your final assessment, a presentation. Teaching this course has changed me as a person and a thinker. I hope it has changed you as well. I also hope you continue to spend your last few months at Atlee High School living passionately--soaking up opportunities to be with friends, talk to your teachers, learn from one another. You have written a 4000 word essay on something you were passionate about. You have expressed daily opinions in the form of seminars, presentations, and polls. Continue to inspire those around you at Atlee by sharing your passions.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I don’t like to be the center of attention, but I try to embrace what makes me uncomfortable--another way to live passionately. When my giant head showed up on stage during Mr. AHS last Saturday, I can assure you I was doing just that. You don’t have to be the star player to live passionately. You just have to have an idea. You have to think outside the box. You have to love what you do and have a desire to share that with others. You have to wave that towel in the air over your head or cheer for your team on the sidelines when the rest of your team isn’t paying attention. Thank you for being students who do just that.
