Poetic Expectations · 24 June 2023
Apparently, I need to give poems with my awards. Who knew?
Expectations are strange. Or maybe not so strange. All I know is that if I do something a time or two, people expect it to happen all the time. I guess it makes some sense. I think.
It is graduation season and we had our annual Senior Awards night a couple weeks ago. It is a night when the seniors get all kinds of awards. Scholarships, awards from the Marines and other armed forces, athletic awards, and of course, awards from the teachers.
The teacher awards are given by the different departments. Art, social studies, English, math, physical education, science, and Career and Technical Education (CTE). Now, I am a CTE teacher. And in our school, we represent several different disciplines. We have agriculture, sports medicine, business and marketing, media arts, engineering, and computer science. Some of our disciplines have a couple teachers, but three of us are single person departments. I am the engineering and computer science department. Yes, they are separate disciplines. Yes, I am one person teaching both (somewhat related) fields. No, I only get one award for the two disciplines.
If you did not know this already, I like to write. I like to write prose and songs and poetry and short stories and… Well, you get the picture. I just like to write. So on Senior Awards Night, I have given two things to my seniors, besides their certificate. I have given Paulo Coelho’s book, The Alchemist, and a poem.
I give The Alchemist to my students because I want them to follow their passions. I want them to give it all for that pearl of great price. That field with the fantastic treasure in it. I want them to really go for it. Of course, I want this for all my students, but I only give the book to my outstanding senior each year.
I also give the student a poem that I wrote. It might not be an original for that particular student, but it is one that I have written. So I usually recite the poem at the ceremony. This year, I refrained from doing so except in class when I recognized the person in front of her peers (as I usually do).
Apparently, I am supposed to always recite the poem at the awards ceremony. Who knew?
Okay, I guess I should have known. This year, it seems that everybody expected it. Mike, one of our administrators, mouthed to me when I walked off the stage, “Where’s the poem?” Marc, the presenter after me asked out loud before his presentation, “Where’s the poem, Miyoshi?” Dan, the MC (maybe that should be his superhero name) wondered afterward where the poem was. And a school board member asked about it later too. I guess I should have known. Awards ceremonies and Miyoshi poems go hand in hand.
Well, to make a short story a little longer, I decided that I needed to write a poem. I wrote a specific one for Rachel and read it to her in front of the class the day after the awards ceremony. And I posted it on my blog the week of graduation. And of course, now I am explaining it all here on another blog post. (Partly, so that I remember to write and/or recite a poem next year at the ceremony.)
I guess I have learned my lesson. Even if we are given just a thirty second time limit (we were actually given two minutes), I will recite a poem for my outstanding senior. After all, it is the expectation. Who knew? Apparently, I should have. Hopefully, I will remember next year. Everybody expects a Miyoshi poem when I give my senior award.
© 2023 Michael T. Miyoshi
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