The Blind Side

I decided to stay in tonight. My roommate is out of town with her boyfriend, and my other best friend is busy with post funeral stuff. I hadn't seen The Blind Side yet and I thought I would watch it. I have never cried so hard through a movie. I am glad I watched it in the end, but it was hard for me to get through it at all. I was glad I watched it alone because I would have been thoroughly embarrassed that I cried like that through the entire movie if anyone else had been around.

Why did this movie make me feel that way? Psychology would say that my biggest heroes are people that take care of children when they don't have to. My father left our family when I was really young, but I had a "second chance family" too. My Grandparents really raised a second set of kids in all the help they gave to my mom. They gave us a house. They came to every school event. They bought me my first car. They sent me to college. They did everything for me and my brothers.

It also got to me because I've known so many kids like the one in the movie. It breaks my heart every day knowing some of what kids I work with go through.

Quit reading if you haven't seen the movie, because I am going to give away the end.

At the end of the movie the NCAA accuses the parents of wanting Michael to go to their school against his will. He says he wants to go to the school his family went to. When I decided to go into teaching, my Grandad was a little disappointed. Academically, I had a lot of opportunities and he hoped that I would pursue a career that would bring in money and be considered an accomplishment. He was a Vice-President of Motorola and told me that of all his twelve grandkids I was the most like him. The funny thing is that I wanted to be a teacher to be like him. I could have followed in his career footsteps, but I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my grandad, the man that I knew who was a "second chance" for kids that needed it.