Lex adventure

Well it was an interesting ride up to Chicago O'Hare. We shared our bus with a group of Lincoln's Challenge alumni. For me as an educator, I knew too much and quietly listened as the young men were revealing their lives to us. If you do not know it, Lincoln's Challenge is sort of a program of last resort. The students that cannot make it work in the regular public school or even in an alternative school often end up at Lincoln's Challenge. These young men had just finished and were going home for the first time after their stay there.

Well from what I could gather we had several parents of children, several ex-convicts, notably one who had been arrested for a carjacking in Chicago. My life long street smarts were on overdrive as I considered my role in making sure that the kids were in good hands. No naptime for me! I was also able to guage the amount of streetsmarts some of them have and it reminded me that growing up in a small town is a sheltered existence and some may need a bit of a primer on being in a big city!

By the end we were all singing songs together. I guess I was reminded at how fortunate our kids are. I listened as one of the young men told me about how he had really messed up his life. He thought he was going to go to college and play football and now he has two children by different mothers and is not sure what he will get to do with his life.

We have had an easy time so far at the airport. We got to the Air France check in line and we got right through it! We checked our luggage and went to the food court in the International Terminal and got our last American fast food for awhile. Then we went through security and we are currently sitting at the gate. Our plane is here already and being serviced and everyone is, as the teens would say, "pretty chill". They were amazed at how easy it all was in the airport. I am glad that this so far has been a very easy, positive experience.