Where Hannah Writes

Lazy. Dumb. Trouble. Attitude. She must have been forced to take Spanish. She doesn't want to be here and won't do any work until the last week of the semester when she comes whining for extra credit. I've seen him in the dean's office. I think he lives there. See that look on her face? That's a look that says that she is here to make my life miserable for 55 minutes a day. Thoughts like these ran through my mind when I first met my students back in August. None of these assumptions were positive, all of them were based on external appearance and behavior observed during a 55 minute class period, and none of them were actually true. Ever since that day, my students have been chipping away at these theories, sometimes bit by bit as with a chisel, and sometimes with the mighty power of a backhoe tractor. The guys that I thought would cause trouble? They are kind, ready to help, willing to participate, and eager to learn Spanish. The girls that I as...

As I write these words, advent, a season of waiting that many Christians observe leading up to Christmas, has passed. Every year, advent is marked by eager expectation, anticipation, and preparation for Christmas, the first coming of Christ. Though advent has technically ended and will not offically be back for another 11 months, Advent is far from over. The paradox of our Advent is that, in one way, what we are wating for has already come. The Kingdom of God has come. Christ is here. God is with us. And yet, there is so much to wait for, to long for, to hope for, to pray for, to cry out for. We cry for safe water for the people of Flint, Michigan. We long for immigrant children and parents to be reunited. We cry for children dying of thirst at the border. We hope that the innocent will be proven innocent in courts and we cry for those wrongly convicted. We weep for lack of health care that leaves people to choose between debt and medical treatment. We pray that the systemic and ...