Moulin Rouge

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
September 11, 2001 changed everything in my class. Over night my students who had tolerated my news habit became news junkies with me. One boy in particular made a radical life change. He joined the military that month even though he had a year left in high school.
Everything we’d planned for the yearbook lost significance and we scrapped the plans in favor of something far different. My students went from being fun loving kids to angry children suddenly aware of the monsters out there.
By May of that school year, the students were almost back to normal. The yearbook was handed out, the seniors were ready for graduation. 9-11 still hurt, but not in the same horrific way.
When my students asked to watch movies the last week before finals, I agreed.
My class of mostly girls brought their favorite, Moulin Rouge. It was relatively new on DVD, and most of the boys hadn’t seen it and to be honest, they weren’t all that thrilled at the idea of watching it then either.
Except one. That one boy sat enthralled, watching the plot unfold. He was an artist and the beauty of the movie called to him.
And when Satine died at the end, he cried. With tears rolling down his face he looked at me in accusation. “Why did you let me watch this?” he said.
At the time I laughed and told him it said she died from the very beginning, then I gave him a hug, wrote him a pass and sent him on to the next class.
That tender hearted boy served three tours of duty in the Middle East over the last seven years. I talked to him after the first tour, Afghanistan, and he still believed in so much. I hope he still does.

I think it's easy to forget about the war when I'm not directly involved but every soldier is a hero in my book.