Bud, Not Buddy.

by Christopher Paul Curtis

“When you make up your mind to do something, hurry up and do it. If you wait you might talk yourself out of what you wanted in the first place.” (27)

So true. Over thinking is the enemy of bravery.

“It’s funny how ideas are, in a lot of ways they’re just small like seeds. Both of them start real, real small and then…woop, zloop, sloop…before you can say Jack Robinson they’ve gone and grown a lot bigger than you ever thought they could.” (91)

I had a small idea of being a teacher. I love my 8th graders. They make me laugh everyday. They tell the best stories and just want their voices to be heard. I'm glad I stuck with the class after my first hard day.

“If you didn’t have a real good imagination you’d probably think those noises were the sounds of some kid blowing a horn for the first time, but I knew better than that. I could tell those were the squeaks and squawks of one door closing and another one opening.” (235)

Doors. One door closed (thank goodness) in Chicago this summer. It was about time. Because it closed, another opened. Those squeaks and squawks were hard to identify as a blessing at the time but they so were.