About a student.

Xavious Ford is one of the reasons I love my job. He works as a grocery bagger at Sunflower Grocery. About 5’2 and 100 pounds, Xavious talks and walks like a gangsta. He’s always on about how hard he is. He also spends a great deal of time worrying about his grade. “Oh noooo, Ms. Savage,” is his favorite saying. I wish it could translate onto a blog, suffice to say there is a musical quality to it.
Xavious always has a mischevious grin and looks like the kind of kid who’s not to be trusted. Nothing could be further from the truth. It means a lot when a kid who acts tough turns in his work on time and comes to see you after class. It means even more when that same kid always says hi (or, wazzup) to you, whether in the hall or at the store where he works. We’ll chat about this thing or the other, and he’s never got an agenda—just basically a decent kid who likes to pretend he’s bad.
Towards the end of the year, I realized that Xavious was going out with another student of mine, Kimberely Ray. Kim is extremely quiet, mild-mannered, and studious. She’s diminutive, with light skin and poorly-kept hair. I was surprised at first to learn that Kim would choose such a wild card, and then even more so to discover that they’d been going out for the better part of three years. Then I realized that the only thing separating Xavious Ford from one of the honors students was his walk and his accent, things he’d aquired, no doubt, to make up for his small size.
The last few weeks of school, Kim began signing her name “Kimberley Ray-Ford.” When I asked if they were married, she smiled bashfully and told me not yet. Nothing could make me happier than the progress of a kind and responsible young man choosing to start a family as opposed to just fathering children. I hope he’s still working at Sunflower Grocery. I never got a chance to say goodbye.