I Wanna be like Peter Pan . . .

What do you want to be when you grow up??

Well, I didn’t have plans to grow up, actually . . .

What does possibly graduating college have to do with anything?

Fine.

I could hop into the teacher circuit. Get credentialed and find out if that hayride is worth the fleas. That was the plan. But in my drug induced dreams (kidding . . .) I have come up with some projects (that other, more motivated people can do for me)

Bikes for Better

Problem: Colleges are so stinkin’ wasteful. I see it every year when Calvin hauls these big-ass metal catch-alls for crap onto campus—a lot of them. Last year, I saw two kids—excuse me, young men—throw a bike each into one of these metal monstrosities.  !  Excuse me? What on earth do you thi—oh wait, you’re not thinking. Currently, there is a bike missing a wheel and no longer chained to, simply leaned against, a bike rack. It needs a new chain. The gears? Probably rusted out. The frame? Fine. Perfectly fine. Trash? No.

Solution: Bikes for the community program. Create a program to collect defunct bikes, salvage parts, and create functioning bikes for low-income families in the neighborhood.

Bona fide

Be Open, Not Alone. Friends In Disguise Education. Maybe that’s an overboard, stretched title. ;) Junior year of high school I worked with Keidi Lewis (Beck) in the ESL classroom. We had a small group of students from both the High School and the Junior High. One boy from the junior high had somehow missed a huge chunk of education, including cultural expectations concerning behavior and authority. I loved him. When he became too out of control or mouthed off or was simply distracting the other students, I would go on walks with him. Often, he needed to blow off steam. I tried to help him do so without damaging anything, gently guiding him away from trouble. Once he calmed, he would start to talk. He had an excited little soul, very innocent in some ways, although ragged for such a youngster. We would have push-up, pull up, and sit up contests, then race on the track. ESL? Mmmm, not so much. Worthwhile? I hope, for him, that it was. He was alone in his anger so often but when we left the classroom and he realized I cared, he opened. We both learned from each other; we were Friends In Disguise. Maybe there is something out there like that. Mentoring. I don’t know. That’d be sweet.

I could teach ESL abroad. Go on backpacking trips with inner-city kids. Start a Trader Joe’s in Grand Rapids. It would do well. Get a job at Mountain Roasting. Take it over for Steve. And totally revamp the sucker. It’s too expensive and the quality has gone ker-ploop.

Or start my own Coffee Shop and Bakery with Eric. More to come on that one :)