“I wish there was more time.”
Story time!
My freshman Honors English teacher and speech team coach, Mr. John Hires, sat us all down on the last day of school my freshman year and just looked at us. He sighed a deep sigh and put his hands on the table, arms outstretched. He said: “I wish there was more time. I wish I had more time with you all. You were such a great class. I want to discuss the meaning of life. What is the meaning of life?” We all laughed and the bell rang, ending our time together as a class.
Little did I know, this would be more or less my last memory of Mr. Hires. He passed away my sophomore year, and this was one of the most heartbreaking events during my time at my high school. He was an amazing teacher – inspirational, encouraging. Treating us like adults instead of like kids. Talking to us like we knew what we were talking about. Always wishing for more time instead of counting down the days until summer vacation.
I wanted to be a teacher like that. I still want to be a teacher like that.
He taught us his favorite play, Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I love that play. It was the first play I directed as drama director at my previous school. Every time I think of this memory of Mr. Hires, I think of Emily’s monologue at the end of the play. She’s died in childbirth, and the Stage Manager – the narrator of the story – allows her to come back to see a day in her life, one last time. As she is getting ready to leave her worldly life, she says:
Emily: Oh, Mama, look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead. You’re a grandmother, Mama! Wally’s dead, too. His appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it – don’t you remember? But, just for a moment now we’re all together. Mama, just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s really look at one another!…I can’t. I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye , Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover’s Corners….Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking….and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths….and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it–every,every minute?
Stage Manager: No. (pause) The saints and poets, maybe they do some.
Emily: I’m ready to go back.
It is a beautiful moment in the play, and totally reflective of what I think is the right attitude – for education and for life. Thanks, Mr. Hires, for teaching me that.