For nearly 2 decades Don Riesett has been an inspirational teacher and mentor to the students of The Community School. His weekly creative writing seminar and one-on-one sessions with the students are always a highlight of the week. Today was no exception, as the students reflected and wrote introducing themselves.
Mr. Don, as he is known to the students, encourages the students both to think and to express themselves n ways both deep and creative. As he introduced this first seminar of the year, Don spoke about how this class will sometimes make you laugh and other times cry because students have shared both deeply personal stories from their lives and hilarious stories from their imagination. We are so fortunate to have Don as part of the community of The Community School.
Here are a few unedited excerpts from the students’ writings this week:
“I am Danny. I am 65% Oxygen, 18% carbon, 9% hydrogen, and 3% nitrogen. I’m a hominid primate, a bipedal great ape capable of critical thinking and complex processing speed. 2 million years ago, people just like me discovered that if you rub 2 sticks together, the thermal energy will excite the carbons in the sticks, which will cause the carbon to bond with 2 oxygens. And with the discovery of combustion, out of thin air, we have our first instance of science. If you know me, you would know that my favorite thing is science.”
“I grew up starting to love everything my brothers love, whether it was the shows they watched or the games they played. They always included me and made me feel wanted which I am very lucky for.”
“I want to be rich one day and I want to travel to many places. I really want to go to Europe and Italy. I need to have a lot of money to support my shopping habits and my family. I want to be able to give back to my loved ones and always help them out when they need me. My family does so much for me so that’s the least I can do for them.”
“I wanna live like a millionaire. I will be a millionaire. I have three plans. Plan A is going to college for entrepreneurship, setting up one business and expanding from there. Plan B is going to college, finding a millionaire, and getting married to him. And plan C is making plan B work. Realistically plan B and C won’t be needed because I got the world in my hands.”
“Recently my real dads mom passed away on my current graduation middle school day. I said to stop lying but when I heard about it I was shocked.Mostly i just stayed in my room praying for her and wishing for her to come back to the earth and spend one day with me, but sometimes you just gotta take the fact that people don’t live forever.”
“Well well well…. Who am I, what am I, who is E, and who is the than. Well let me tell you who this teenager is! So E is a student in The Community School, he is 15, he is a friend, he is the African scammer, and sometimes they call him Mr two tight depending on the pants he wears. But personality wise, I think he is very caring, loving, and he tries to do his best at everything.”
“I wake up at 5:54 in the morning and then start my routine. When I wake up in the morning I know the Inevitable is about to happen, the inevitable of my phone alarm blaring off in my ear, or my fat dog barking for no particular reason at all. I think both of them are the Universe’s way of saying ‘I hate you.'”
“Whenever I go out I like to see the sunsets and how vibrant colors are up in the sky. Especially whenever its colors like pink or a sweet red. “
