I Have Such a Big Heart

I just got an email from one of my former students, Gina, a young woman who I met in the First Year Core course at Mount Vernon...oh so many years ago now. She and Stephanie, who I believe was the first and only young woman I ever met as a first year student who proclaimed herself a feminist (already), were the best and brightest students in the course. Subsequently, they both took several other courses from me and Stephanie graduated from Mount Vernon with a major in Human Development. Gina transferred after two years to a school closer to her family's home in New Jersey. I guess I was a mentor to/for both of them and along the way they also began to feel a lot like younger sisters...welcome to the family. Of course that meant I had to forgive Gina for leaving Mount Vernon and then Stephanie for also eventually leaving the City. Like the other "kids," they do insist on leading their own lives in places other than here. But if I could people Jocelyn Street myself, they would be included among those who would have houses right here.