Human's of Hartland - Brian's Story

My love of learning, speaking and now teaching Spanish started when some Hartland High School kids ran an after-school Spanish program when I was in 8th grade at Farms Middle School.  Enthralled by that experience, I went on to take four years of the language at Hartland High School, studied it in college and now teach it at Howell High School.  What I didn't know in 8th grade is all of the places that learning Spanish would take me.

As a junior at Hartland, I went to Spain & Morocco with Senora Cody and was immediately bitten by the travel bug.  I returned to Spain to study in Madrid for a semester in college where I took college classes, participated in an internship and lived with a host family for four months.  After I graduated and got a teaching job, Senora Cody asked me to help her chaperone a trip to Costa Rica and next summer I will be leading my ninth student trip to Costa Rica.

These experiences have molded my character and taught me many valuable life-long lessons.  Learning to be independent, to be brave, and to live life to the fullest have certainly been lessons learned through my travels but it goes deeper than that.  I have learned that no matter where you live, no matter what language you speak, and no matter what religion you do or don't practice, a human is a human and we all experience the same emotions:  the joy that a newborn baby brings or the grief and sadness that the passing of a loved one gives us are universal to the human experience.  Despite our apparent differences, we are all more alike than we often realize.  I have those high school Spanish students to thank for that lesson, and all of the others, that I have learned from my journeys.