Learn Rules To Break Rules

I’m the only early-riser in the family. Until recently, that is. My eldest is doing her student teaching and since she knows I’m up, she’ll often give me a call in the morning to tell me a story, or complain, or ask a question. This is probably my favorite morning activity. But being up early has other bonuses—it gives me some great quiet time for exercise, coffee, reading, writing, or catching up on work.

I love to write. It’s something I’ve done on and off over the years, but thankfully nothing I’ve ever been good enough at to be more than a hobby, because writing is hard. Getting thoughts together and onto a page is challenging, and I really admire people who do it for real.

Something I think about a lot, other than how to get myself to write more, is how I ended up loving it in the first place. It’s a miracle and a mystery that I ever get any writing done, but how I learned isn’t a mystery at all.

In seventh grade I had a young, energetic English teacher. He recognized that while grammar was important, it wasn’t necessarily interesting. While he couldn’t make grammar any less dry than Passover matzah (got a simile in there for you, Mr. D.) he was able to create an environment where even the dullest subject was tolerable.

Mr. Dziedzic was stuck with me again in 8th grade. And one thing I remember him telling us was you have to learn to do it right before you can break the rules. Learn your Strunk and White, and once you’ve got the basics down, go do your thing, your way.

Mr. D. was stuck with me again in 9th grade, and again in 12th. He recognized my love of reading, and encouraged it. He helped hone my writing skills so that I wasn’t totally adrift in college. And he made writing something that didn’t feel like a difficult but necessary skill—I could see how writing could be so much more.

Writing, for me at least, is a bit like skiing—I love it, I don’t get to do it much, but I’m an enthusiastic amateur. And I try to leverage that to keep my community informed about the things I am an expert in. (Sorry about the final preposition, Mr. D.; I couldn’t find an elegant way around it).

I used to teach medical students and residents, and I loved it. But long before that, I tried my hand at real teaching, even had a real-life teaching certificate. I lasted as a regular sub for about a year and a half before I said to myself, “medical school has got to be easier than this!”

I am so excited for my kid to become a teacher, to have even a little bit of the effect on kids that Mr. Dziedzic had on me and so many others (and this isn’t a eulogy—he’s very much alive!). When I think of the big influences in my life, I don’t really think about medical mentors, but I do think about Mr. D. and how he taught me that communication matters, quality matters, caring matters. And that the hard stuff can be fun, maybe not despite its being hard, but because of it.