Going Off-Center

Going off-center is a gradual state-of-being.  Or, at least it was for me.  I wasn’t aware that I had drifted off to the side. I was so focused on my ‘kids,’ that it wasn’t until I would get into a conversation with adults that I became aware of a change in me....  It’s not that I don’t take notice of what is occurring around me, but there are certain things that no longer register on my radar.  Things like Easter egg hair color, or cat’s eye contacts, or multiple piercings or a plethora of tattoos are not the types of things that I get worked up about anymore.  I was a teenager in the 1970’s.  A time when teens were trying to ‘find themselves.’  We dressed differently, wore our hair differently, we were more outspoken than the previous generations (at least that’s what the previous generations told us on a fairly regular basis).  Teens are still seeking to find themselves, probably always have and probably always will. 

Did I notice the first time a kid walked-in with blue hair?  Sure I did.  I probably had something to say about it to my colleagues at the time.  But, did it really matter?  No.  Still the same child with the same smile, the same weaknesses, the same strengths…the same.  Except now the student was peeking at me through a curtain of blue.

Now, I will admit to having a private chuckle upon entering our cafeteria one day.  As I perused the group before me, it was quite evident that the fad of dying one’s hair unusual colors had picked-up among our student population.  As I surveyed the room, noting the various brilliant hair colors, it occurred to me that I could have walked in on the extras from a Star Trek taping, as they were breaking for lunch.  But, they were not actors, nor were they, aliens, they were my students; trying to ‘find themselves.’