Strem Talks

There is a divide in our country at the moment. Actually, there are many divisions, it would seem. There are those who separate our country by race, some by gender, some by sexual orientation, some by political beliefs, some by religion. The list can go on and on, but all of these come down to a simple concept that has been ingrained in our socialization in this country for years and years: “us” versus “them”. At the beginning of our country, it was the American colonists against the British Empire, which sought to unfairly exploit them without giving them any real representation in their political systems. During the Mexican-American War in 1845, it was the American people fighting against the unfair and unjust Mexico. Despite the original confrontation taking place on disputed territory, newspapers across the country cried, “American Blood Spilled On American Soil.” With that, President Polk garnered all the support he needed and we embarked on a war with our Southern neighbors th...

What makes a good person, good?  Is it how they treat their family?  Is it how well they treat people working in the service industry?  Is it their care for animals?  Children? Yes.  To all of these sentiments, all of these could be factors in making you a good person.  Good people treat their loved ones well.  They’re kind to strangers.  They may have a smile for everyone.  They’re the kind of people who see someone drop a $20 bill, and even though they are broke, they run up to return it.  It’s the people who go out of their way to be kind.   I know so many good people.  People I have known for years and years, who I love dearly.  They are good people.  I am surrounded by good people in my life, who have been there for me through thick and thin, as they say.  They have stood by me during the trials and tribulations in my life, but they have also celebrated with me during my personal victories.  We hav...

This year has seen an unprecedented change in the national conversation that has been the hot topic since a certain businessman/reality television star took office.  I found myself in a conversation where two people were appalled at how overtly critical the media and the general populace has been of President Trump after the events in Charlottesville.  I asked them, honestly, did they not remember the angry vitriol that followed President Obama?  They’re response was that it wasn’t ever this bad for him.  Despite watching our president be hung in effigy.  Despite listening to his wife being called a “gorilla” by mainstream media.  Despite hearing multiple arguments about how he’s handled hostages, both paying an exorbitant amount of money, and refusing to spend any money.  How he’s handled healthcare, with only 8.8% of Americans uninsured during the Obamacare administration.  The increase in the national debt, which has nearly doubled in actual d...

When I was 10 or 11 years old, they had a special day in my elementary school.  They came in with a bunch of instruments and gave us the opportunity to hold them, to try to play them, to find our musical calling if there was one there.  That day I picked up a trumpet, felt the cold brass on my lips for the first time, and blew.  Sound immediately came from the horn and the person introducing us to the instruments was left shocked (this was not a normal thing for a kid to pick up an instrument and just start playing it).  I remember being a little bit shocked at my own natural ability with this strange new instrument.  I also seem to recall my mother not being shocked at all.  “Brass is in our blood,” she said.  We had a history of bugle players in my family.   So I started lessons and joined the band.  Every week we would crowd on the front steps of my school and go to the other elementary school down the street and meet with the elementa...

A few years ago I found myself looking through my high school yearbook and found the most interesting note from an old friend.  It said, “You are the most fight-for-your-rights person I know”.  When I was in high school I spent an inordinate amount of time fighting the injustice I saw everywhere.  I was idealistic and believed that I could make a difference with my words and my voice.  I find myself, years later, feeling rather hoarse.   It’s been 12 years since I graduated from high school.  Since then, I have graduated from college.  I taught for six years.  I have developed relationships with those around me.  I have also voiced my opinions about the state of this world, but after spending as much time as I have screaming about the endemic issues that plague our society, I found myself exhausted and almost to the point of giving up.  I sat and watched our country elect a man who is the epitome of the things I fight against: greed...

I have had countless years of students telling me, “I can’t do this…”   Usually when this happens I bring up one specific student who, at the end of his Senior year at HCSS told me that I was the voice in his head saying, “You got this kid…”  I explained to my students that it doesn’t have to be my voice it just has to be a voice saying that they can.  I hated to quote the Little Engine that Could, but if you think you can, chances are you will.  However, understanding that doesn’t mean that doubt doesn’t creep into the cracks and crevices that life leaves behind in a person.  I believe that as you go through life, the bumps and bruises you get along the way leave little inlets for doubt to seep into like a parasite.  These cracks can become better, but it takes hard work.   When I started teaching, I felt so much doubt in myself and in my abilities.  I felt like I was working so hard and yet nothing was the way it should be.  I was ...

A love letter to the last 6 years… This year marks a change in my life that I thought about many times but that I never actually saw becoming a reality.  For half of my adult life, I have taught in Chicopee.  My first year, I was a high school teacher (and a rather terrible one) and then came the biggest transformative moment in my young life: I was going to be forced to teach middle school (I bolded forced on purpose, since there was no option and I cried hysterically when I got the news).  So I became a 6 th and 7 th grade middle school teacher at the tender age of 25.  This was my quarter life crisis.  This was a moment when I faltered and thought to myself, “Should I stay and try this out or do I run far, far away from this?”  When I decided to be a teacher I would say, “I’m thinking high school, because I was even a nightmare in middle school and I was a half decent kid.”  I had a tough year in my own personal life that first year and the ...