all of my blog posts are spoilers.
Hey Mr.Gozzo, put away your shmigtschicks, we have a spiel for you. We just want to say thanks for...everything! We started as nervous, scrawny 6th graders and have become bigger, some-what stronger and “maturer” 8th graders. With your help, we have gone up the scales of musical caliber to a much higher octave. You've fixed our instruments when they broke, tutored and prepared us above and beyond for high school, and understood when we got tired after long days in school. You have taught us so much more than just music which we can never repay you for. Some of our best memories from 51 are joking around with you in the band room while plowing through song after song. You’re one of the only teachers we can actually talk to, whether about music or new restaurants. We have only known you for 3 years, but it feels like so much longer. You keep saying that you won’t know what to do when we’ve gone off to high school, but truth is, we don’t know what we are going to do without you!
This is the cheezy speech that me and a couple of my friends gave at the end of our Saturday night band show. It seems really corny, but we actually meant it! He is an awesome teacher!However, when you look closer at the speech, it's less about him and more about us! The speech is really saying that we learned from what he taught us and became "maturer" people because of that. We've put away our proverbial shmigtschicks (Mr. Gozzo phrase, means distractions like iPods and such) and become better musicians! In a way, this is coming of age in a sense that a mentor is helping you. But sometimes, there is no Mr.Gozzo. Sometimes, you have to do things on your own.
The main character Melinda in Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak is one such example. Melinda is an outcast at school because of a past event, but she could get people to understand if she just told them. However, she is to frightened to say anything about it. Eventually at the end of the book, she finally speaks up in a way that she never thought anyone would hear. But someone did, and Melinda was finally accepted into society. Honestly, She can't really thank anyone because she did this all herself.
Towards the beginning of the book, Melinda was very quiet, but not in a shy way. it's not like she was hiding her thoughts by not talking; she was just. not. talking. if a teacher asked her a question in class, she would just sit in her seat and look at the teacher. That is, she would look at the teacher while not saying anything. Not a word. I don't know about you, but I think that that's really immature, not to mention rude. It's like she wasn't even trying to fix things for her. either she was really helpless, or just plain stupid. I just want to go into the book and yell at her right there for being such an idiot! she can fix things for her self, she just needs to try!
But at the end of the book, this changes. when something is about to happen, the original cause of the muteness, the yells at her oppressor. Actually, she threatens him. When she yells, the lacrosse team hears her and comes to help her. After this, she gains popularity. But now that I think about it, she didn't really come of age by herself! If not for the bad character, or even the lacrosse team, she would have just stayed the must and hated girl that she was at the beginning of the book. I suppose that coming of age really requires at least one more person, good or bad.
I'd feel bad if I knew someone who was trapped on a deserted island.
