“ But down these mean streets a man must
go, who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.”
It´s over and done. Last Friday, I was handed my graduation papers. End
of a chapter. I´m a grammar school teacher now – and a good one at that.
I won´t say too much about it, recurring to my favorite Chandler quote,
all that I will say is that the streets were mean, that I walked them the way I
was intending to walk them – the way I was also supposed to walk them living up
to the true essence of the quote which is not necessarily the way I was meant
to walk them by the institutions and assessing boards – and that I´m glad it´s
over.
If the streets are mean, it´s easy
to adapt – it takes a man not to fall for that easy option. I vowed to be that
man. Didn´t become mean, didn´t become tarnished and didn´t become afraid. I
walked the streets without making a bow – and paid my price. There´s a price
tag on everything and I chose to pay the price tagged on resilience. We´ll see
where it takes me but I´m not worried. Why am I not worried? Because I firmly
believe in above quote, holding true what it postulates. The results I got have
always been overwhelming. I keep them on my wall. And somewhere else.
Here´s to those who made the streets less hard, less mean and gave back to me.
I hope and actually know that I was able to contribute something. Which is
cool. I won´t give names. But I can say that especially the classes I taught in
Franconia will forever remain special people to me.
I have a new car. I don´t have a girl friend anymore. I have a full time job. I
climbed a really cool route a few weeks ago. Right now I´m curing my sinusitis.
I had some amazing thai curry the day before yesterday. I´ll be flying to
Norway next weekend. Life´s full of positive things, mixed with a few
negatives.
Life´s good.
