dream deferred

About two Sundays ago there was an article in the NY Times titled "dream deferred." I expected a subtle allusion to Langston Hughes poem by the same title, and there was, but in a completely different manner then I had anticipated. The story was about an ESL teacher who had a student who instead of using his real name, chose to take from the English he was learning, and be called something else. This is quite common among ESL students in that they sometimes don't even choose names but mere words they would like to be called. This particular student's name was Dream. Dream developed a crush on his teacher (not uncommon either) and began bestowing gifts and affection on his teacher even after she left the country she was teaching in. Apparently even after she had returned Stateside the student, Dream, continued emailing and made plans to pursue an education in the States so that they may be together. The teacher then replied that she no longer wanted to correspond with him because she did not share his feelings, and his emails were getting obnoxiously out of hand. Well, the teacher talked about how she didn't hear from Dream for a very long time and was troubled by some of the comments he made such as "I can't live without you" "There is no life without you" and so on and so forth that she was (narcisstically) troubled over what he may have done since she had written him and told him to not contact her anymore. However, a few months later Dream contacted Teacher to share the news that he was engaged to be married. The end. The point of my story was that Teacher made a comment in the article that Dream's obsession was one that was universal. One that held no language barriers. One that said "you are my everything, until someone else is."

so is that it? our lives are just a course run of people entering our lives that have such a profound affect on us that they become our "everything" until that next "everything" comes along. More than that this person will be the standard to which we hold everyone to until we find that next standard, the next person who enters our lives who has that profound affect on us and becomes the one we center our lives around for a little while. our next everything.

While the article hit close to home since I have experienced the affection of students who are taken by their language instructor. All ESL instructors have to a certain degree since the teacher is usually the outsider which, depending on their appearance and personality, makes them either really weird or really exotic thus attracting or repelling everyone.

I was most affected by the that one line "you're my everything, until someone else is." is it really that simple? The hopes and dreams that one person may inspire in you can easily be deferred when another such person comes into your life.