Introductions...

I have always wanted a blog. For several years, I secretly envied all the people who took the time and thought to express themselves in this medium, but for some unknown reason I failed to become a "blogger." The closest I came to a site such as this was through my long-since expired "Xanga" account (I operated under the clever alias of "mackeegrl488"), where my friends and I would bemoan (and celebrate) our adolescent troubles. Needless to say, when I received this assignment last Monday, I was genuinely excited that this class will provide me with the incentive I always needed. I'm also really looking forward to getting to know our class through these posts!

As far as general introductions go, I'm in my senior year majoring in both English and Secondary Education. My hometown is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the "City of Five Seasons," or more appropriately, the "City of Five Smells." Despite the odor of cereal factories that permeates the city air, I really enjoyed my schooling experience in Cedar Rapids. For much of my life, I swore to myself I would never enter the teaching profession, largely because my immediate family is composed almost entirely of teachers. This is no exaggeration; I once had a former teacher tell me that teaching is my "family business." My mother just began her thirty-first year of teaching and works at Viola Gibson Elementary School wrangling a lively group of second graders every day. My father was a long-time teacher and principal in Cedar Rapids. While he no longer works in a school, his job keeps him in close contact with state Departments of Education. His mother, my grandmother, taught fourth-grade for decades. In addition to this, I have aunts and several cousins in the "teaching business." I have one little sister (a Communications major), and I tell her it is inevitable she will end up back in the classroom. Because of all of this, I grew up surrounded by the frustrations and the joys of teaching and decided it was not for me. In kindergarten, I thought I would end up as an astronomer and yet here I am, little more than a year away from certification. I am beyond excited (and little nervous) for what this profession holds.

While my family was initially my deterrent from teaching, I know now they play a large part of why I want to become a teacher. Although their influence undoubtedly shaped me, another important reason I am pursuing this field relates to the title of my blog, "Metaphors Are Dangerous." As I'm sure was the case for all of our class, I grew up surrounded by language and literature. I absolutely loved it. Although these reading and writing experiences meant a great deal to me, I could never quite articulate language's profound impact until I stumbled across Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being during my junior year of high school. I was struck by Kundera's capacity to use words so eloquently. While the novel captured my imagination, there is one line early in the novel that always held my interest. It reads:

"Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are no to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love" (11).

Before reading these simple lines, I had never fully understood how empowering language is. As cliche as it may sound, to me, language is "dangerous" because it allows writers to express themselves in a completely unique way. In my teaching career, my ultimate ambition is to teach my students to appreciate the power and untapped possibilities their language holds. While this may sound naive, I am continually amazed at the work young writers produce.

Again, I really am looking forward to reading everybody's thoughts in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading this LONG (and probably rambling) introductory post!

Mackenzie