There's Always Hope - January 8, 2010

As a new year begins, if there's nothing else, there's always hope. If you lost your job, there's hope you will find a new one. If your marriage ended, there's hope you will meet someone else, maybe someone even more compatible. If you are suffering from an addiction, there's hope you will finally overcome it. I've never been a fan of the revelry of New Year's Eve, but I've always been comforted by the notion of a new year offering the chance of new beginnings and new possibilities.

Back in August, I launched my blog in response to a classroom discussion of whether people are basically good or evil. Through this online endeavor, I want to find out if benevolence can take me around the world, but I also want to show my students that any dream is possible, no matter how improbable it might seem. That's because there's always hope.

To this day, I have told only six people about my blog, as well as my 9th grade ESOL English class of 15 students, so I can see how an idea spreads, much like ripples spread across a lake after a rock plunges into the water. Since August, I've had more than 1,000 visits to the site from 31 states, 17 foreign countries and 2 territories.

Even though I've received only $34 in donations, I remain hopeful that I will be traveling overseas this summer. Hope is what fills me with excitement each day as I open my e-mail with the belief that today might be the day that I've received a ticket from the president of an airline or received a huge donation.

Although many of my kids don't think I'll raise enough money for my trip, a week doesn't pass by without a student asking me for an update on who's visited my blog or if I've collected additional money. I'm thrilled when a student asks because it gives me a chance to, once again, remind the kids that they should remain optimistic about their own dreams, such as graduating from high school or achieving better lives than the ones they left behind in their native countries.

At times, I'm surprised that my students continue to express such interest in my blog. I'm not sure why, but part of me believes that they want to see my crazy experiment succeed because then it might make their own dreams seem a little more attainable. After all, there's always hope.