So today I spoke to another class of kids. Wee kids. Little ones, grade niners. Ironically when I was in Grade nine I didn’t think of myself as wee, and when I was in grade seven kids in grade nine were immortal gods who donned armour crafted of the finest mythryl, forged in the armoury halls of nordic dwarves. They truly were a subspecies of immortality.

 

However now that I have breached the staggering heights of 5′9 I look down on them with years of book learnings.

 

In short I was at a school speaking for career day, and I felt like a mental giant. I’m not the smartest cat on the block but I like to think my ability to maintain a somewhat open mind to the world around me gives me a solid ground to speak to kids of the importance of sticking with your goals.

 

I don’t know how many of you know this, but it wasn’t in any way an easy path for me to get where I am. I got fired, I ate no name egg noodles, and even bought plenty of “juice mix powder” from the bulk bins at Superstore in order to have more to drink than tap water. Times were rough, and rougher still when my friends who all worked in trades had money to smoke mucho doob, and drive cars.

 

Still now I can say it was all worth it cause I like what I do, and I enjoy my lifestyle. That’s basically what I tell kids when I talk to them, “it was all worth it”. All of it, the stress, the chronic masturbation (brought about by female’s inability to date someone who can’t buy them more than a value menu cheeseburger, don’t fucking lie ladies, your vagina’s greed for cock and diamonds controls every facet of your mind), the constant walking, and the embarassment of being fucking broke all the time for four years was worth it to be where I am now.

 

I suddenly realized this morning while standing in front of thirty 14 and 15 year olds that some of these kids had ZERO consequence of what I was talking about. How fucking sad is that? Is that common? Is that the way things had always been? Is that the way things will always be?

 

It breaks my fucking heart. I try to be as hopeful as I can be, but it’s getting really fucking hard for me. I looked at the eyes of these kids and told them that integrity to yourself is really all you will ever have, that desire that nests deep in your head to be something more than your expected to be. To be the dark horse in the start of the race only to finish first. All of us have had them moment when you realized you’d win, be it a game of BINGO in grade two, or a spelling bee in grade five all of us have had a moment like that.

 

Don’t sit there and say, “no I haven’t” cause if that’s the first thought that comes to mind you’ve obviously spent too much time suckling on your television trusting it’s notion that a mere twenty dollar purchase can solve all your woes.

 

Integrity to yourself I said, “is to never let anyone or anything allow you to forget you’re always the dark horse in every race”.

 

I know I sound like a motivational speaker here, but there’s a reason I’m so disturbed by my day today. Some of the students were rowdy. It’s true, and there were times where it really was necessary to address their rudeness. I didn’t tell them to “shhhhh” I’m pretty sure they’d heard that enough times already. I talked to them about what they were discussing amongst themselves. I brought their corner gossip to the centre of the classroom, and joked with them.

 

I was generally impressed by the wit some of these kids had. They were actually kind of funny, in a rather purile manner of course, but inside I was chuckling. Mostly cause I am rather purile myself at times. It turns out a few of them were in a band, and that’s really what these kids cared about, so that’s what we spent the rest of the class talking about. Music.

 

I told them that every band that really did something, that really made a difference spent hours pouring through books desperately trying to find a way to see the world from a different perspective. I told them that in order to be a truly great musician they’d need to be able to see the world through an other set of eyes. Those were the building blocks of a truly timeless band. I asked them to name the most famous bands they could, and every one they named featured a tres eloquent front man.

 

I asked them if they wanted to be a flash in the pan band, or a band that made a mark on everyone that heard them. A band that wrote lyrics with deep seeded metaphoric tone, words that bounced endlessly through your head until you found layers of symbols that could give birth to a remarkable realization. The kind of band that would have fans coming up to them twenty years down the line and say, “Man that line you wrote changed my life, I saw the world entirely different after I heard your albums.”

 

When I told them the only thing they’d need to do in order to accomplish their goal was to read, it seemed like they were amazed.

 

Really? They asked.

 

What should I read?

 

Anything.

 

I had a great teacher in grade nine who taught me that English was more that a method of writing. She taught me that English was a way of communicating, and if you learn to use it properly you can litterally change the entire world around you. It would appear that far too few people realize this and as such “God help us, cause we are in a lot of trouble” - Howard Beale

Thank you Mrs Bluett.

 

These children weren’t so lucky, the teacher they were endowed with told me directly after class that the children I was talking to were smart asses who weren’t to be taken seriously. She proceeded to tell me their band was terrible because they were loud and screamed.

 

The vehemence that spewed forth from this woman’s mouth made me truly ill. Does she at all realize what she’s doing to these kids? She wasn’t educating, she was regulating, and if that’s what education has become then we truly are in a poor perdicament. The one person who is supposed to guarentee these kids believe that self integrity is the most important thing we have, has sold them up the river because they’re not playing the right kind of music.

 

You know why shit is peddled as truth across the media? You know why stores like Wal-Mart can put an entire town out of business? You know why wars that kill thousands and millions go on unabated every day?

 

Because the people that are supposed to tell us to read between the lines, are telling us to think and dream within them.