Push Through

I've been transcribing interviews for the Minarets High School* video for the past few days.  It is tedious work since I've heard the interviews before when we were doing the actual filming.  But it has to be done before I can find the 10 minutes of script that will come out of the almost 9 hours of audio.  I have to take it in chunks and set the timer to force myself to do a certain amount of time before taking a break.

Yesterday the voice of a young student broke through the almost rote transcription. Cheyrese is a sophomore afflicted with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis that struck her about three years ago.  Since then she has been in and out of hospitals, isolated and home schooled, and forced to relearn how to walk.  Her journey continues as she faces more surgery, more pain and more challenges.  But this is what I listened to her say yesterday when we asked her if she had anything else she wanted to tell people:

"If you do have something like this, just don't give up on yourself.  Don't make it seem like the end of the world will happen, because it won't.  As long as you push through and you do what you think you're supposed to do, you stay in school or go to college or anything, you're going to make it.  I'm not going to lie ... there are going to be bad days but everybody has bad days.  But if you can push through your bad days, then that can motivate people to push through any of their bad days." 

Push through.  How simple but how wise.  At least for today, when things might not look as rosy as I'd like, I'm going to remember those words.  If Cheyrese can push through, surely I can.

About the image:  Minarets High School.  * For any of you interested in learning more about what's going on in schools these days, you might want to look at the other blog I'm writing.  There are some great sparks of hope out there.  Perhaps, just perhaps, they will soon form a great beacon.  For more information about Minarets and other new school models, please go to http://reimagineschool.com.