A proud moment
Today in film club, we were in the computer lab while some of the students were editing. A particularly cool student, who shall remain nameless to protect her anonymity, was scanning through a CD of her dad’s trying to pick a song to use as the backdrop for her movie.
Knowing that, when I was in 8th grade, I was still REALLY into house music (the first round) and the various post-New Edition R&B groups, I can accept through my own lack of humility that it’s possible to grow into an interesting human being even with fairly primitive musical tastes in middle school.
So I was not only surprised, but ecstatic to hear the reverberating drums that open “The Bear” by My Morning Jacket. Later on, she played “Convict Pool” by Calexico, as well as “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello. I was really jealous, just imagining how exciting and mind-blowing it would have been to discover interesting and challenging music at that age. For me, the next step was discovering classic rock. I didn’t really get to the “challenging” point until KKNB switched over to The Planet in 1993.
While it would be a little satisfying to be responsible for some of it, I love being excited for the people I’m supposed to be teaching two hours a day. I’m not saying this is all about My Morning Jacket and friends – I don’t mean to make the song itself more important than it is – but it just got me thinking about the bigger picture.
Knowing what kinds of imaginations some of these people have, being constantly impressed by them and proud of them, and discovering what they’re exposed to at this point in their lives and watching what might end up inspiring them, I hope I’m lucky enough to be able to see where they end up in 4, 8, 10 years.