When You Leave Me

This piece of work came about as a model for a final exam in an adult developmental writing class at Central Texas College in the spring of 1998. As an English teacher, it has always been my belief that if I am to teach students the craft of writing (I don't know if one teaches it so much as guides it...either the student will write or he won't), then I must write with them. I am now in the sixth decade of my life and have taken numerous courses requiring that I write for my teachers, and never once over the years have I read the works of any composition or literature teacher for whom I have completed course work. That was rather perplexing to me for I have always been on who has expected to have the expert show me their legitimate credentials in the product they could produce...the old proof is in the pudding. Consequently, I could not help wondering about their credibility in judging my work. Writing, while a cognitive activity, is also an exercise in acting upon and reacting to one's thoughts. As I knew many of my students would, they approached the assignment form a practical perspective while my approach was a purely effective one. I nearly always have an organizational plan in mind, but when I take pencil in hand (and I guess I am a dinosaur because I still write with a pencil and a long yellow legal pad), my thoughts are in control as they place themselves on the paper. Usually, I am not disappointed. The prompt simply asked that the writer advise a young person of three things he or she should take along when they leave home and their journey carries them out into the big wide world whether it be to a job, the military, or higher education. These are words I offered my dear one. The wonderfully talented artist Mark Ruben Abacajan so graciously accepted the challenge of joining images to words to give greater substance to the message we want to send. May all young people, and everyone in the pursuit of the new and different in their lives, be encouraged by our efforts.