i love you

i really do. i love students. i love the ones who are angry, curious, frustrated, amused, and sometimes even enthused. i love the former students who have not given up trying to make art and trying to be decent people, who haven't ceased trying to love, and make children, or not. people who try to read books and think even though books are expensive and they haven't much time. students who publish important books, and students who publish nothing that is famous or well known (yet)-- who parade their difference and their specialness behind the counters at borders or in tutoring offices in community colleges. i love students who go back to grad school because they always want to learn more, and i love students who drop out to write a novel, take care of a sister or parent. students who have said fuck academics and have gone to work for surprisingly green companies, and who are teaching in the interstices of the private sector. students who say there is no job for me in academics but i will stay and cling to the raft of adjunct teaching anyway, because i love it so much. i love students in rock bands, who share their performative genius and still have more energy to burn. i love the students who take it upon themselves to learn in impossible conditions with administrators who just wish they'd flunk out and go away.

but they won't they won't they won't. because these are people who have abandoned apathy, and as a result dare to hope, dream, and act.