A Rabbit in tall wild grass.

 Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst

    
     In a Freshman English Class back in College, way back when everyone was worrying about the coming Ice Age, (not joking), the world was cooling and folks were wondering what was coming first, Ice or Russian ICBM's. But I digress.
     The College was small, nestled in the mountains between two small towns in Southern California. On the day in mention our in class assignment was to go outside and write about what we saw, we had 20 minutes.The purpose of the assignment was to determine who would be forced to attend "Dumbbell English"
     It was a warm fall day, after all it was Southern California, and I decided to lay on my stomach in the tall wild grass that surrounded the college and write about my world view, as a rabbit. Twenty minutes passed quickly, however back in class we were given fifteen more minutes to finish the assignment. Really? How much of a world view did he think a rabbit had?
     The following week the instructor made an announcement, "If I call out your name you will have passed the assignment and will be moving forward. If not, you will be reporting to another class on Wednesday.
     Was I surprised when he didn't call my name? Of course I was. Man oh man how I didn't want to go to "THAT" other English class. I hated English. I could care less about it. Guess my paper showed that.
     The Instructor continued, "You are all dismissed except for Mr Garrow."
     I thought "What! How bad was my paper. Is there a place that is below Dumbbell?" Well I was about to find out.
     Walking up to his desk as everyone else piled out of the class, a few students even gave me, that poor you look. You know the one. They try to look sympathetic but in reality they are smiling inside because it's not them. I smiled at the Instructor, to appear like I was cool and collected. He didn't smile back.
     "Mr Garrow, he began, in all my years of teaching (he was really old looking so I figured it was a lot) I have never, ever had a Freshman turn in a paper such as yours. There is no doubt you have no clue on how to spell. (yup I know) Do you even know what punctuation is? (Still not sure). You would be hard pressed to convince anyone that English is your native tongue."
     OK I said to myself, there is a place below Dumbbell, I wonder what it is?
     Of course he wasn't finished, "Like I said Mr Garrow, (do they still address you as mister in school?) I have never read anything like this in all my years. Despite yourself it is brilliant!"
     Yup below Dumbbell is brilliant. Wait did he just say brilliant? My smile returned.
      He added, "I am assigning you to my advanced English class." He was smiling, "Where you had better learn to spell, punctuate and prove to me and the world that you understand English. I will push you. That I can promise you." (and he did)
       Well the ice never came, nor the Russian ICBM's, and I never did master the language. But you know the greatest thing that happened. Someone believed in my abilities, that's huge for anyone. Of course the next year a different instructor in a writing class ... wait I digress.
        So what is the point of this post? Well even if your world view is that of a rabbit, if you look beyond the tall wild grass, you should be able to see the horizon, run towards it, never look back. Finally never listen to those who say to you can't ... find the ones and listen to those who say can!

    

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      Rebirth and Reunion are the first two books of the E.L.F. series that immerses you in the struggle between power, desire and hate that reaches well beyond this world.