Thank you all for helping make 2013 such a remarkable one for me. I had many plans on writing an end-of-year review, but I thought it more prudent to making my art deadlines for the 2nd Platypus Police Squad book. As it turns out, Facebook already collected some highlights for me. How rewarding it was to take a look back on all the year brought me via Facebook's Year in Review feature.
I am constantly drafting updates via social media and sometimes this blog gets ignored. I would be remiss if I didn't mention two items that weren't listed in that Facebook Year in Review. Both happened this fall. One was an interaction I had with a student in the New Orleans area. He started telling me about how he wrote a story about he and his cat. I listened, as I always did. The boy then went on to tell me about how he didn't know his father and was currently not living with his mother. I certainly related with the boy, and it made me so very happy that I not only was open with my TED Talk, but that it had gone viral, and in a way, was able to give this kid some comfort that his future would be OK. Another event happened in North Carolina, where I was set to speak at UNC on a Saturday. This group of teachers drove around from neighborhood to neighborhood picking up students from their classrooms. Together with volunteers, these teachers reassembled their classrooms to hear me speak. What heroes.
I am so eternally grateful to meet so many heroes, and to be in touch with them on a regular basis—in classrooms and through social media.
Happy Everything to you all! I wish you the best of the best this holiday season.
I'm unplugging now to be with my own family, and I look forward to spending 2014 with all of you!
:)
JJK
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