I think my students appreciate when they know I’m walking with them.

Most days I can sell my students on what I need them to learn.

But some days even linking our work to something interesting, or their futures, isn’t enough.

Some days (only the grayest ones, it seems) – I must sit on my desk, pull out my journal and show them how language affects me. Some days they have to be reminded that I’m walking with them, that I yearn to press something beautiful through the pores of the night sky.