I want you to know

it was brought to my attention that some of the subjects i talk about may not be appropriate for some middle schoolers who may or may not be reading my blog and this is what i have to say on the subject...

On my first day of sixth grade my teacher told us she was preparing us for college. I’ll admit I was a little intimidated at that point. I’ll let the teachers censor it for them if they want.

For those of you who don’t understand I’m trying to do a vicarious voyage thing with a class back at home. I’m going to write about things we are learning in class and things I’m experiencing on the ship because that is all I have to write and think about. Let it be known that there are consequences for your actions here on this ship. Even that guy who got drunk isn’t allowed to buy drink tickets anymore or be seen drunk. If he violates those, he will be thrown out of here so fast.

Don’t worry, the packet I sent to the class before India focused on the Caste system and the one I’m sending them in Egypt focuses on Whirling Dervishes. So I’m not asking them to study FGM or anything. But I also refuse to stylize my writing for one specific group of people. I’m also writing this for people who may take the voyage in the future or maybe even a random stalker or two. And I wouldn’t want to bore them now would I?

I could have written about the dead bodies we saw in India. Would that have been better?

Maybe I could put a little bit of a warning before going into “non sixth grade” things? No that would mean too much thinking about what is and what isn’t a sixth grade appropriate topic. And heck if I know what is. Not to mention that would make it even more likely that they would read it. Teenage mentality and all.

I’ll finish with this. I can’t perceive how my tone of voice is going to sound in this entry. I don’t want to freak out the class that may read this blog and no, I don’t think they should be actively learning about FGM, but this is my experience. I’m not going to dice it up because I’ve stopped writing in my journal religiously—hurts my hand too much. When I get back the changes I see in people and in myself will have been caused by the experience as a whole, not just the bits that were easy to swallow.

DD