A Brave New World

“Some may say I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one…”~ John Lennon

Very soon I will depart for a new chapter in my life.  A new world that is scary and exciting at the same time: The Metro-Plex.  After five years of blood, sweat, and tears I recently finished my doctorate and I will begin my first job in higher education at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I go from teaching at a high school of 600 to teaching at a college of over 30,000.  I have an apartment lined up and my office is being prepped for my loads of books, pictures and diplomas.  The nervousness and butterflies have started and the realization of the magnitude of this change in my life.  But with nervousness comes great excitement.  My fear does not stem from the feeling of wondering if I am making the right move. I have wanted to work in academia for over 20 years.  I have 100% assurance that I can do the job and I have been “called” into this second career at this stage of my life.

Some feel the call to ministry, others to foreign diplomacy or politics, social work, medicine, or military service. Some feel the call to teaching and make that their life’s work.  My calling involves teaching, but it is much deeper.  I have the gift of encouragement and a love for science that was reflected in my 21 years of teaching.  I want to share that gift with the current and future teachers of science and mathematics, the gatekeepers of our nation’s students who will maintain our innovation and help us persevere as one of the most powerful countries in the world.  I want to help inspire students to become the future scientists, astronauts, and doctors that we will need for the next generation.

I also am for the underdog.  I always have been.  If I had lived in Europe in World War II I would have been killed for helping the Jews.  I would have been a staunch abolitionist calling for an end to slavery during the Civil War.  I would have marched with the women who demanded the right to vote.  Finally, I would have helped sustain the civil rights movement of the 1960’s with great fervor. But those times have passed.  How can I make a difference right now? I still support the rights of the underdog and the downtrodden.  In the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), that primarily includes females and minorities.  I could write for days about why they need advocates at every level, but there is not room in this blog.   Let me just say that there is a great need for America to produce more engineers and scientists and we need to develop them from within our own schools.  

I sometimes feel I have no power to make changes in racism and discrimination in America, although I long for a way to get involved.  So I have chosen this field to enable female and African-American scientists, engineers, and STEM teachers to find their calling and make a difference.  My gift to them is empowerment:  the ability to prosper in a field that is exciting, lucrative, and beneficial to the world in numerous ways.  Empowerment, hope, and encouragement through education is my way of changing the face of racism and discrimination for the underdogs of our world.

Will I change the world as much a march, a rally, or a picket sign? I am not sure, but I know I am doing my part to help the next generation build a better world.  This is my life’s mission…my calling.

Maybe I am naïve, idealistic, or a dreamer, but I have a feeling I’m not the only one.  Pray for me as I enter this brave new world of opportunity and change. 

How to Know if You are a Zombie

“Did you exchange…a walk-on part in a war…for a lead role in a cage?” 

~Pink Floyd from Wish You Were Here

Humans will never fly.

No one will ever climb Mt. Everest.

It is impossible to run less than a 4 minute mile.

We will never make it to the moon.

We will never find a cure for polio.

Mars is out of our reach.  We should just forget it.

There is a show that I occasionally watch, but usually just while I am channel surfing.  It’s called “The Walking Dead” and I know some people are completely addicted to it. Sometimes I stay and enjoy the story and plot, but when the “walkers” show up, I am on the move to find something like Andy Griffith to clean out my short term memory.  For some reason I stayed on a certain episode today. For devoted fans, it was the one where they entered the Centers for Disease Control and found out the nature and origin of the disease.  As a science teacher (one that actually attempted a unit on zombies), I was intrigued at how the zombies came to be.  Without getting too deep in the science, let me just say that the disease or virus kills the individual.  But some part of their brain “awakens” after a few hours. It is mostly the brain stem, the part that controls unconscious actions.  Thus the walkers are, in a sense, alive but not really.  They function only to move and feed and are exactly what the title suggests:  walking dead.  The only way to kill them again is to destroy that part of the brain.

What intrigued me most was not the brain science, but the attitude of the individuals who were trying to survive.  The CDC was wired to explode in a ball of fire when its power reserves ran out, and the sole surviving CDC employee was ready to go up in flames and take the survivors with him.  The survivors knew that outside were starving zombies, but for some reason they could not buy into the idea of choosing a quick and easy death to avoid the conflict outside.  I left the house for a while to clear my head of zombie images. After walking and jogging at the track, I started to understand the strength, perseverance, tenacity, and courage of the human spirit. 

A teacher fighting a diagnosis of cancer after being told there is no hope.  An athlete pushing herself for the next race or a faster time or a new goal. A college student barely scraping by with a part-time job and mounting college loans to become a doctor.  A mountain climber reaching the top of Mt. Everest and saying “What next?”  An astronaut taking “one small step for mankind.”  A paraplegic striving to walk again even though science says it’s impossible.

As the Pink Floyd song describes, there are many individuals who choose to live their lives in a cage and never strive to get out.  It is comfortable in the cage; no unknowns to fear. “Just give me my food and water and TV remote and make me comfortable and I will be just fine.” All the while, the key to the cage hangs nearby, ready to secure their freedom.  Only a few brave individuals choose to open the door and take their part in this war called life.  When you enter a war, there is great possibility of death at every turn. But there is also the key--the key to independence.  As I write this on July 4^th, I will not forget the ones who fought in many wars to gain our freedom. They chose to truly live to give us life, sometimes at the cost of their own.

So in the end, it is important to check yourself.  Are you in the multitude of the walking dead? Or are you in the minority… in the small but dedicated group that chooses to strive for more against all odds.  As long as there is hope, there will always be a human spirit that seeks to climb the next mountain, cure the next disease, or meet the next goal.

Unlock the cage.  Join the land of the living.