Sweet potatoes and books

My husband and I have recently made a habit of visiting farmers markets on the weekends.  Since we became "school year empty nesters" (our youngest son left for college last fall), Glenn and I have had a lot more time to spend together.  A lot.  It's been quite a journey for us so far, trying to figure out who we are as a couple and what we like to do.  I was already a parent when we got married (a story for another day) so having this kind of unlimited couple time is new for us and one of our adventures has been finding these markets in our area.

Every Saturday or two - and the occasional Sunday - we head to a market or at least a sizeable produce stand to load up for the week, usually looking for something new to try or try again.  I will admit when we started going, I didn't even know there were so many different kinds of eggplant.  And I'm Italian!  A few weeks back we were eyeing some beets.  I don't like beets and neither does Glenn, but they looked so fresh and springy!  When the produce guy came over with some advice on how to choose and cook them, his offer to enjoy a bunch for free convinced us to take those ruby beauties home and roast them to perfection.

We still hate beets.

Lately I've discovered just how much I love sweet potatoes - not the ones covered in marshmallows - just baked sweet potatoes in their skins with a little butter and cinnamon inside or stuffed with black beans and garlic.  (Unless I'm at Buddy Freddy's, in which case I eat them mashed with brown sugar and pecans.  But I digress.)  As a child, I didn't like sweet potatoes, but every so often I'd take a little taste just to see...and today I am indeed a fan of those beta-carotene-packed hunks of goodness.

Which brings me to my students.  I teach teenagers who, for a variety of reasons, are at risk academically and some, physically.  They are unwillingly placed into my Intensive Reading class because they have not shown themselves to be proficient readers on our state test.  Whatever.  The fact is, they hate to read, they hate books and most of them daily remind me of this.  But I keep making them do it, working to find that "just right" book that will grab their attention, exposing them to a new book I've found or an author I think they'll like.  Before a new book goes into my classroom library, I usually give a little talk on it, pass it around, and try to build some interest in it.  Today, as I was offering up some fresh titles complete with a brief explanation of the plots, my students scrambled to grab the books before anyone else could - then sat and read for thirty minutes.  Not that fake-reading they usually try to get away with, but the real reading where you actually get lost in a book and when the period is over you try to convince your teacher to let you keep reading - "just to finish this page" - even though you'll be late to your next class.   Class after class, I wanted to cry.  Just like my repeated exposure to new vegetables and fruits helped me to develop a taste for them, pressing a new book into my students' hands over and over, all year long, finally paid off in tickling their reading palates - even just a little.

And we can apply this to our own lives.  What is it that you don't like doing?  What are you afraid of doing - or being?  Is there something you know you should at least try, but you haven't yet?  Start where you are.  Don't bite off more than you can chew, but take a taste of that new behavior, or attitude, or way of thinking.  Pretty soon it will be a habit in your life, just like eating your veggies.