fruit

i just harvested our first tomato of the year. while the three heirloom plants have numerous blossoms, not very many of them have set fruit. which might not be bad, since i don't love tomatoes but sad because then i can't share.

it kind of reminds me of my students. you prune and water and hopefully they all set blossoms, but you might not see fruit. or hidden fruit. or late blooming fruit. i had an old student come over for dinner yesterday and he said the nicest thing: "i probably wouldn't have graduated without you." teacherfriend allie and i were discussing this -- there are a few where we can probably say with some certainty that we made a difference in their lives. we helped them graduate. there was fruit in our work. granted it's taken a bit of time, but seeing ts clean up so beautifully AND get his shit together FINALLY was really an affirmation for me. to see him care about school, making good life decisions for himself -- that was real fruit.