Reflection

I am a person who does a great deal of reflection. I look back at roads I have taken and think about what I have learned. I can recall one moment where I realized what it is that people have taught me. I wrote, "I am amazed what other people have taught me. Some teach me patience, some teach me disappointment, and others teach me silence." People teach us things everyday. I have learned recently that ignorance and blindness make people attack what they do not understand. I have also learned that when opinions are formed rapidly without knowledge a shell of understanding is formed and no argument can hold. In my youth, I struggled horribly with learning from people. My cynicism kept me from the glass half full and turned me to the opposite. As I have grown older, I have come to see people differently and learn to accept people regardless of their beliefs. This, however, was born out of seeing beyond my own place in the world. I have tried on other people's shoes and walked around in them. This has taught me much.

What I have found is that learning isn't something only gained in classrooms. Yes, it is where we are pushed, asked to think deeply and to demonstrate what we know. In addition, we learn from our surroundings. In Romeo and Juliet, we will see what happens when hate is learned and sides picked. In high school we learn more than books.

I want you to think about what you have learned this year? I do not want you to pick a class and list all of the vocab or dates learned. I want you to think BIGGER. What did you learn about yourself as a learner? What did you learn about friendship? What did you learn about family? What did you learn about relationships? What did you learn about high school?

These are just optional questions. You know what you learned this year. Please reflect without using names--this is not a slam fest where we attack others. Attacking other only breed animosity and anger. This is about finding future direction. We cannot move forward until we have examined the journey.

Loyalty

I have been watching the movie A Few Good Men, one of my favorites. It is about having honor and being a part of something greater than the self. It is about how honor starts with honoring yourself and those around you. However, it is also about loyalty. When I was in the military, it was imperative to be loyal. I was loyal to my platoon, my company, my unit, my country. However, loyalty does not just belong to those in the military. It is something we live everyday. We are loyal to our friends, we are loyal to our families, we are loyal to our spouse/significant other.

This idea will crop up in the pieces we read and the movies we watch. Romeo and Juliet will show us loyalty and its impact on those who abide and on those who choose disloyalty.

I want you to think about what loyalty looks like. Describe it. Who has your loyalty? Why do they have it? What is the cost of it? How do they lose it?

Friendship

In Romeo and Juliet, we will see friendship in many forms. So often our own friends are the guides we need through our darkest hours. I can recall many times when I have called upon another to help me carry whatever pain or fear that I had strapped to my back. Our friends are our confidants, our vessels to scream into knowing that our secrets will never be shared or dispersed.

I want you to think of the role of friendship in your life. What do you expect of your friends? What do you trust them with? What can they count on you for?

Thinking

I recently started thinking about how I have changed as a thinker over the years. As a kid, I would find myself gathering information from books. I read constantly. I still do. I also gathered information by listening to others. So often, the intelligent people I knew would reveal their wisdom through conversation. Additionally, I was exposed to other types of conversation that allowed me to come to my own conclusions about what they really knew. I found myself thinking in a straight line. I started at point A and ended at point LMNOP.

As the years have progressed, I have also found information through the Internet, databases, research, and now my iPod touch. It is information at my finger tips. I download apps that provide specific information focused down for my knowledge. If I want to learn about Mythology, I download the app. If I want to lose weight, I download an app. If I want to learn about local restaurant experiences, I download an app. My thinking has changed. My thinking now is an explosion. An idea will strike me and I will see information exploding out from that single experience to see the ripples, the fragments, the impact of one bit of information on many others.

I want you to think about how your thinking has changed. How have you changed the way you gather information and make decisions? Have you changed? If not, why have you not changed? What is the result of the world around you on your thinking?