Self-Destruction

Those of you that have been following my blog for the past couple of month might remember a post about Marissa (if you haven't, just go read it!). So I voiced how she started off the year completely off track and then completely pulled a 180 and became one of my most notable students. Her life outside of school took a turn for the worse, and she completely let herself slip. This is one of the hardest things to deal with at this job. I feel like the students lack so much support outside of school that all of the hard work a lot of us teachers put in just doesn't cut it. Without a strong family support, it seems that any student would be completely set-up to fail; especially in a corrupt district like DPS. Marissa's mom has cancer and apparently is not sure how long she has to live. Granted this is sad and having a tremendously negative effect on Marissa, her mom is definitely not stepping up to the plate. Instead of encouraging Marissa to be straight and trying to stay strong, her mom is constantly looking for attention and feeling sorry for herself. On a positive note, Marissa's mom has decided to move the entire family to Tampa so in case the worst does happen, Marissa's grandma will be there to provide some aid to the family.

Marissa has spent the past 4 or 5 months getting back on track, building up her confidence and then just collapses. It really makes me wonder how much we can really do for some of the these kiddos.

To keep with the theme (self-destruction), let me tell you about my Friday in the railyard at Echo Mountain. I ollied (jumped) onto a rail with my weight to far forward and completely tacoed the rail (picture my body being the taco shell, with all the good stuff being the rail), bruised all across my lower abs, left blue paint stains on my hoodie, and have a huge scab across my stomach; but all in good fun :) Later that night however, I hit the quarter pipe and landed a 360!!!

Finally my freaking cold is starting to go away too, so maybe I can actually get my fat butt back into shape for triathlon season. This was seriously the longest and worst cold I think I've ever had.