Although schools emphasize endings and moving on (when the bell rings students put aside their work and go on to the next subject), Waterways looked at publication not as an end product, but as a step in the learning process. Many alternative high school students were in constant transition. Many Offsite Educational Services (OES) teachers were able to combine the Waterways publications with their classroom assignments. Waterways was designed to assist the classroom teacher, who would also be addressing the needs of the host site. The first publication from OES's Upper West Side Manhattan DAYTOP site opened with “Don’t Waste Your Life” -- which the class voted to use as the name of their magazine.
My name is David. My age is 16. I was born in October 1970. I was once a drug user. I used to use crack combined with weed. It is called “ruler”. I used it once and then twice until it became a habit. I used it every day ($200 to $300 a day). I would go out and steal things like radios, clocks, gold, etc. I also used to steal from my stepfather until one day I got a job in a crack house making $400 a day. When I got the pay it was all gone within five hours. I would smoke it up in rulers. One day I made about $800 and by the next morning it was gone! When I went home my chest was hurting a lot. I thought I might die. I began to say to myself, “I am going to die.”
My heart was beating very fast so I went outside. It was about 7 a.m. and I robbed a school teacher to get more. I got caught and I was very scared because I knew I was going to jail. My mother came and got me from the precinct. The next day I told my mother I needed help. I wanted to become drug-free and that is how I got into DAYTOP. Before smoking crack I got so thin that I was 130 pounds and a size 28. I am proud to say today I’ve gained weight (155 pounds and a size 31). Give me a couple of days and I will wear a size 32 and weigh 170 pounds! Guaranteed! I hope you don’t do crack because it is wack.
Then came “Changes” by Lucas:
Changing from getting high to being straight
Just as love changes into hate.
Life and my problems seem different today;
No more drugs to chase them away.
Courage has changed to fear.
My crutch is no longer here.
No. It’s very clear to me.
Change can control my destiny.
Adjusting to my new way,
I will change with every day.
The next issue of Don’t Waste Your Life opened with Those Winter Mornings by David (after he read Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden)
Every morning my mother wakes me by yelling out -- “It’s 7:30.
Time to get up.”
That is why I hate her.
‘Cause I would for once like to sleep to 8:00.
Maybe 8:15.
But,
She wakes me up anyway.
It was followed by Amanda’s poem, “Life”
Life is made of many things
But it has two meanings.
Life of joy and life of pain.
You have them both,
but they’re not the same.
All want one, the one of fun,
But that way there’s nothing done.
No one wants the one of pain,
For it is a lonely lane.
Life is hard
And life is fun
For both
Two meanings join as one.
Later that year, Amanda died tragically, and the first issue of Streams was dedicated to her.
No comments:
Post a Comment