“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.” -Shawshank Redemption
Well it's March. That awful month when winter comes back and spring seems so far away. It's been bitterly cold, sunny and mild and briefly snowing all in the course of this week. The snow is slush under foot and the grass is more mud than leafy.
And yet, here come the applications! In the next six weeks we'll be reading eager, young dreamers' essays and picking the lucky few for My Travel Bug Fellowships. I hope to share some of the best applications with you, dear reader. Each year I start a file with the best essays or quotes from essays. It gives me hope and helps on those days when I get mean emails accusing me of running some evil scheme to export our best students to Cuba when they should go to Disney World for much less money and no language barrier. (You think I'm kidding!) Words and music have the power to transport us to far horizons and people we've never met. Email and the internet have the power to educate. That's why we keep doing what we do.
Cheers, Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment