Learning Event 8

Its funny to think about the future even at twenty years old. I could have said whatever I wanted when I was ten years old, but I doubt it would be even close to who I am today. By the way, it was a professional athlete.(I’m not in case you were wondering.) I don’t like to make five or ten year predictions because its like having a perfect bracket for the NCAA tournament. It just is not going to happen. However, I have a scholarship obligation that requires me to teach in the state of South Carolina for four years after I graduate college. Upon graduating I will apply to the worst schools in South Carolina and hopefully land a job. I want to work in the worst schools because no one else wants to and expectations probably aren’t the highest there. However, that does not mean I won’t expect the best out of myself everyday when I go to teach.  While I’m teaching, I would like to use my summers to go on vacations. I want to eventually hit six of the seven continents and see as many countries as I can. I believe the best way to teach is through experience. I would also like to coach soccer while I am teaching. I am a huge soccer fan, and I loved having good coaches growing up. I’m hoping my coaching career might bring me some state championships or other awards. I want to try to hit all of the continents before I get married. Marriage and starting a family really put a damper on individual goals. Plus the more women I meet, the more I can choose from to be mine. The most important part of where I am going is the classroom. I am like a drop in a puddle, I create ripples. I’m not a sit around and let the system fail child after child kind of person. Forgive me for not being humble but I am going to find a solution to the education problem in America. I’m going to make sure that all of my students go to college. I’m going to wake up everyday and make sure that my students know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I want them to know that it does not matter what else happens in life, if they put all their time, energy, and willpower into education, they can make it and be whoever they want to be. I love it when people ask where I am going. I’m going to make a difference.

Learning Event 7

Moving from my hometown to Charleston was a bit of a change because even though I live in a city, it is a lot more spread out. I think the best way to describe the sounds of my home is to tell what sounds are missing in Charleston. In this city, there is always hustle and bustle. People getting to work and going to school. It sometimes seems like this place is in constant motion. Greenville is a bit slower. We still have hustle and bustle, but its at a more laid back pace. Things their don’t have to be at break-neck speed and you don’t have to dodge as many cars. Plus, it definitely smells a bit better in Greenville without the horses and salted air. Another sound I miss in Charleston is the sound of mountains. Of course we have the scenic water areas, but there are no mountains that you can stand on that make you feel like the king of the world. There aren’t many (if any) hiking trails in downtown Charleston. The ability to be out in nature and experience all it has to offer is key in being a human and sometimes de-stressing. There is something about being in the mountains and being away from the constant machine that is the city that calms and comforts the soul. Sometimes its not the sounds we hear that remind us of home, sometimes its the sounds we miss hearing the most.

Learning Event #6

It seems everyday we get lost in the big picture and forget to stop and smell the roses for a bit. There are two things I keep within my ten foot circle all the time. One of those things is headphones. I use headphones to hear the mundane. Recently, I’ve been trying to listen to more music. It blocks out the sound of nature, but it doesn’t block the rhythm of life. I think music through headphones actually gives you a new rhythm. I love walking to class and listening to music because its a distraction from the elements. I think I would get a lot warmer if all I thought about was how hot it was outside. However, music allows me to escape and feel the beat in every step I take. Headphones provide a mundane distraction to the nuances of nature that aren’t necessarily bad, but can get predictable at times. Another thing I keep around me at all times is family. I don’t mean the biological people that I have some sort of DNA relationship with. I mean the people that I care for just as much as they care for me. I like to say that I don’t have any friends all I have is family, and I keep my family close. I try to keep my circle small so that I know everyone has earned their place. It is neither a distraction or an attraction to the mundane. Family simply takes the guesswork out of life. I don’t have to ask the questions some people have to with their biological family. This part of the mundane is the miracle in itself. 

Learning Event 5: A Turning Point

I wonder how long it took my peers to come up with their turning points or narrow all of them down to the most important. The story goes like this. When we were kids, my mother was teaching us the values of saving money and being thrifty. The traditional method of doing this when I was a kid was the piggy bank. I guess kids use apple pay now or something.  Anyways, my mom explained to us, my brother and me, at a very early age that because teachers are heavily underpaid, she would not have enough money to pay for us both to go to college. Funny thing is its true, she makes like 40k and a year at

Charleston is 20k; multiply by two because I’m a twin, and all my mom has to do is not exist for a year. So our mom came up with the brilliant idea: to save our money for college. She went out and bought quite a large piggy bank and we started to fill it. Whenever we came across cash it would automatically go into the piggy bank to save for college. This was the drill for almost two years. The pig got pretty full, so as kids we were proud of our accomplishment. One day, we came home from being out on errands to find the piggy bank was gone. We had been robbed. It was definitely a setback for my mom, no adult likes to loose a piggy bank full of cash. She was sad and told us to be on the lookout if any of our friends looked suspicious. However, the loss of this piggy bank hit me in a different way. I didn’t feel sadness, I mean of course I cried, I was like 6. It lit a fire in me. From that day to the end of high school, my entire life has been about getting to college for free. Dr. Radakovic would hate me for this but it was certainly a guess and check situation. At first, I thought I was going to play college soccer, which then tumbled into taking a free year at the local community college, to ultimately me earning a free ride to the College of Charleston. I’m not gonna lie, it was some shit. I made sacrifices others didn’t have to. I was up early and asleep late, but there wasn’t going to be anything in between me and my dream. It’s kind of weird to make such a heavy decision at such a young age, but that was hands down the turning point in my life that got me where I am today. The funny thing is I would give it all up in second if it meant that the people I left behind to get to this point could make it here with me. 

Learning Event 4: The Shape of My Story

My story is shaped by an unlimited amount of events that got me where I am today. I don’t believe my story is special by any means or needs  to stand out and be recognized. I feel fortunate to have grown up in the circumstances I did as a kid. A lot of people take for granted where they start out in life. They fail to see where the starting lined is skewed towards one group of people and away from another group. If I could give my life a shape it would probably be a pentagon. It seems like when I get going on a path all the sudden it switches directions. However, the pentagon is an accomplished shape, I mean after all it has one of the most important buildings in America modeled after it, and everyday houses take its form. In terms of events that got me to where I am, to be honest, I got where I am by getting in trouble. Throughout my childhood, I have been in and out of trouble whether it was the principles office or the  law.  Its funny, because I feel like you can’t judge your own life because its obviously a biased opinion, so to shape my story, I use the opinions of those closest to me. My roommate said something to me one day when we were drinking “sweet tea”. He was like,”Royce, man you are one driven person.” If I could sum up my ambitions at this point in my life, they would fall into two categories.  The first one is to experience the world. How can I teach students everything they need to know in life if I haven’t learned everything that life entails? I need to soak up every challenge life throws at me and learn from that event. By learning from my mistakes, I can show kids the right steps to take to ensure their success. The other category my ambitions fall in is that I want to make sure every kid I teach knows that no matter what situation they may be in, education can be their way out. I’m an example of this kind of success. Being able to go to college for free is the crowning achievement in my life. I want my students to understand that through hard work and the willingness to give more effort than their peers they can go wherever they want to. You could call it freedom. To some this may seem like an impossible goal, like a never ending  highway. However, that’s kind of what I like about it, only the best apply to make the drive.