mrveitch

The other day, I went out to grab some take out at my favorite local spot. The place was full, so I awkwardly sat with some kid who was eating while I waited for my food to arrive. After the initial gawking and shy hello, he struck up a full blown conversation with me. Somewhere telling me about becoming reinvigorated in his life despite being at a crappy school, he dropped the above jewel while talking about his mother. She is 40 or 50+ and will move to Egypt to be a teacher, leaving her current job in China (don’t remember what it was, but it was not education related). 

Now this boy, who did poorly on the gaokao and ended up at the bottom of the totem pole here in China, looks to her as an example and has chosen English as the catalyst for the change he seeks. 

I doubt he realized it during our short talk, but he inspired me too. Woke me up, really. I’ve been drifting; a passive observer in my life. I teach, go home plan rinse and repeat. COS (close of service) is creeping up on me and I’d rather not be surprised.  I’ve still got a year plus before my next big step, but it ain’t too early to start planning, is it? 

HSK 6

GRE

FSOT

This is gonna suck

but it will be so worth it