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“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

So today I joined other San Francisco, state and nationwide educators in the fight for social justice, a so-called labor of love. My head is spinning- everytime I examine my beliefs, I feel like I went to therapy. It's figuring out me before I get into the classroom. I've been trying to do this for the last four years, maybe even longer. I feel like I'm getting closer, but then, I'll lose momentum and crumble under the pressure. I will wake up one day feeling self-confident, the next deflated.

I have all of these big ideas- I don't know how to take them all on I have so many. My vision for a school is exactly the one that Linda Darling Hammond advocated for in her presentation today, in order for the construction of education, not destruction to begin. I want to have a community and school integrated together, with a school connected to a community center- where people can access health care, take parenting classes, learn how to feed their families, train for careers. But, I keep hearing the keynote speaker in my head, who said that all you can do is think "You can't save the kids you teach- all you can do is join your students in the process in which the kids are saving themselves."

I can't do it all. I'm not superwoman, I want to be, but all I can do is continue to care about what I'm doing and try and help the students who are victims needing healing. I'm one of them too.