A Boy Named Broccoli
John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” As I look back at what I have written for this memoir, A Boy Named Broccoli, I see this paradox repeating throughout. For example, during my teen years, Music was a huge part of my life – I wrote my own scores, I played the guitar, and I traveled in the singing group, Up With People. Although, I kept asking myself, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? What really matters? Then, one fateful day in 1977, I met and conversed with my first deaf student and threw every other career idea out the window. I decided I would become a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Deafness? Sign language? Interpreting? What did I know about these? I’d thought. Yet, meeting and connecting with that young student had changed how I thought about the world and eventually changed who I am. Now, after 39 years as a Teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I still have passion for my work, and this work can often bring me to tears of happiness. I love my students, and I love that they have given me permission to share their stories—both the tough times and those that made me smile.John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” As I look back at what I have written for this memoir, A Boy Named Broccoli, I see this paradox repeating throughout. For example, during my teen years, Music was a huge part of my life – I wrote my own scores, I played the guitar, and I traveled in the singing group, Up With People. Although, I kept asking myself, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? What really matters? Then, one fateful day in 1977, I met and conversed with my first deaf student and threw every other career idea out the window. I decided I would become a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Deafness? Sign language? Interpreting? What did I know about these? I’d thought. Yet, meeting and connecting with that young student had changed how I thought about the world and eventually changed who I am. Now, after 39 years as a Teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I still have passion for my work, and this work can often bring me to tears of happiness. I love my students, and I love that they have given me permission to share their stories—both the tough times and those that made me smile.
