Summer vacation has begun hear in Natal and I will miss my students. This year more than any other I think. Although I say that every year. But there was something extremely illuminated about these students, many musicians in the group, and during the year there was a wave of suddenly half the class going vegeterian and the other vegan. I think by the end of the year only two kids remained carnivorous. They planned guerilla theatre and quoted Emma Goldman and Bakunin. I work with youth from the totally disenfranchised to the very rich. These are middle class with a conscience--some more than others, but even the ones whose dream it is to go to Disney inspire my tenderness, knowing what all that means to them. Teaching them how to construct adverbs, or comparatives and superlatives always seemed so mundane compared to their unbounded social questions, indignations, heartfelt desire to change the world, their 'yes!' to life. So the last day of English class, we played some games and since the last grammar lesson we did of the year was the difference between 'will' and 'going to'. Of course as a native speaker I never new there was a difference until I began teaching non-native speakers and one of the big lessons, at least in the curriculum material we have hear,regarding the future tense is all about the difference between the two. Okay, for native speakers who don't know the difference: use 'will' with predictions and 'going to' with plans. Anyway I decided to ask a question, which initially was intended to kill time, that would utilize 'will'. "What will you be doing in five years." I collected them, congratulated on a year well spent, hugged them and that was the end. Except that when I got home, I sat down to read their answers. Each one was so telling, of their struggles, of their imaginations...These are some of their answers. (with their permission)
My Future--I will have a fine job, civil engineering, and a car too. Luã

In five years I will be in a college and I want to will be independant. I will live alone, because I think that this kind of things make one mature. I want to be responsable and a good person. Rosanya

I will be very beautiful. In five years I will go to college. I will have a car. João Paulo

I five years I will travel with Gurgel to Mexio and eat burritos. I will also be happy and...who knows...I'll enjoy my life because I can be dead tomorrow. Júlio

In five years I will go to CEFET because the education there is like my ideology. I don't know. I just wanna study before I travel through Latin America, meeting new peoples, listneing to new bands, lookin at new cities. I think I don't wanna plan my life. I just wanna live. Igor

In five years I will study very much; I will travel to Canada; I will move into an apartment; I will buy new clothes; I will travel with my sister and my mother; I will live with Marina. Isadora

What will I do in the future...Who will I be... I have no fricken idea! But I know that no matter what, I will strive to be a person who made a difference in someone's life, a person who, no matter how big or small the help, helped in some way to make our world a better place; a person who will be remembered because of her love, her passion and not because of her hate or indifference. I can't say if that's who I will be, but I can definitely say that I will try very hard, and just trying will make it worthwhile.

In five years I will be 18 years old. I will have a 13 year old brother. In five years I will have a drivers license.

My Future--In five years I will finish high school at CEFET and enter the Federal University. I will travel by van through the American Continent, doing circus shows with my friends and live alone. Larissa.

In five years I'll be in the Federal University. I will work in a store. I will travel to Canada. My friends and I will have a circus. I will live with Isadora in an apartment. I will have more friends. Marina

In five years I will do a lot of things. I will meet a lot of people, feel a lot of feelings. I don't have many plans. I only want to enjoy each day, with friends, alone, it doesn't matter. i want to drink each drop of life that I have. Gabriel