30 For 30: The Grateful Alive

*Editor's note for people born after 1990: The Grateful Dead were a band*

As I wake up on this Monday morning (Happy Memorial Day America!), I am feeling grateful. I know I write a lot here about how sad and frustrated I am with so many things in the world today. That remains true, but even with a decline in fun and entertainment constantly happening all around me... I am so grateful.

This past year, I taught at a Title I school. The Title I program is a nationwide education initiative that supports schools who serve low income students. The statistical benchmark to be a Title I school is if at least 40 percent of students receive free or reduced price lunches. They are all over the US and A and there is probably one closer to you than you think.

Populations eligible for Title I funds are usually clustered together in different pockets across school districts, therefore most Title I schools exist at the elementary and middle school levels. High schools cover so much territory that the larger body of students pulled from so many schools usually drops the percentage of free or reduced lunches below 40. Some schools are near or even above the requirement, but do not want the stigma that comes with a Title I label.

Growing up, I did not go to a Title I school. My family is not lower class and that alone is reason for me to feel as grateful as I do. There were Title I schools in my district, all at the elementary (19) and middle (6) levels. By the time students went to one of three high schools in my hometown -- Plano West, Plano Senior and Plano East -- it was mostly middle class families that made up the school's demographics, with lesser percentages at the lower and higher ends.

I knew little about Title I schools as a kid and even a young adult. I rarely heard the term and my friends and I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about schools outside of our own "bubble" that we lived in. Many of us came from different elementary feeders and met in middle school. None of those elementary schools were Title I. Our middle school and one other fed a junior high which in turn fed the senior high with one other junior high. None were Title I.

Our society is inevitably segregated by class, especially in states like Arizona with open enrollment and an abundance of charter schools. But truthfully, in modern times, kids are changing schools all the time regardless of zoning. If you have the money, you won't send your kid to a Title I school. If your child is a star athlete or music prodigy, they can go anywhere they want. We are dividing our youth, whether it's intentional or not.

And guess what private schools can do? Recruit. Although, let's be honest, public schools do it as well. K-12 education has its own transfer portal, with plenty of willing buyers in a concentrated, uneven market.

I didn't realize until I got much older that we all truly live in our own bubble. Not until my third year of teaching, this last year at a Title I school in Phoenix, Arizona, did I genuinely understand that the world is much bigger than any one person will ever be able to comprehend.

Sorry Alexander the Great. Sorry Genghis Kahn. Sorry Napoleon. Sorry Sir Francis Drake. Sorry Lewis and Clark. You saw more than I ever will, but you didn't see it all.

Not that I have. My life has touched various nooks and crannies on this Earth, but I've only ever lived in the cities of Dallas and Phoenix. (Technically Houston and Boston as well if you include my hospital cities. Wait. Hospitals? Read my book for more!)

I was lucky enough not to live in questionable areas (because of my family), but now that I've taught at a school that serves one of these underserved communities, I have had my eyes -- but more importantly my heart-- opened to things I always knew existed but had to see and live in to really understand.

One day, I will say more. That day isn't today. Perhaps my next book. Today, I just want to express how grateful I am. I know I joke about my various disappointments and displeasures, but not today. Today I am not bummed out about my lost love of sports. I'm not down in the dumps because movies no longer inspire magic. I'm not pessimistic because society holds no one accountable. No. Today, I am grateful.

Grateful to be alive and well. Healthy. At peace of mind. Grateful for my parents. My siblings. My aunts, uncles and cousins. My best friends. My readers.

Today, for the 30th time on May 29th, I watch the sun rise on a grateful universe.