MY PERSPECTIVE
JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • FALL 2020 43
I’ve always loved stories.
The summer before my
freshman year at Jesuit, I
remember sitting down to
read my required copy of The
Life of St. Ignatius, and even
though the language was a bit
academic for my teenage sensibilities,
I was still drawn to the
story. Power. Privilege. Battle.
Cannonballs. Conversion. Pilgrimage.
Sainthood. Sign me up
– for some of it.
I never wanted to teach. I honestly
never even considered it.
After graduating from Jesuit, I
didn’t know what I wanted to do,
but I knew I was destined for a
career full of prestige and power,
not unlike our own St. Ignatius.
I went away to college, began
business and Chinese classes,
and was well on my way to the
life I envisioned. However, also
like St. Ignatius, I had a cannonball
moment that humbled me
path ahead: accounting class. No
matter what I attempted to will
into existence, accounting class
left me crippled, and the door
was closed to the future that I
had planned.
Being ultimately drawn back to
stories, I graduated from college
with a degree in English literature,
a minor in Chinese, and a
deep desire to broaden my view
of the world. Teaching English
to Chinese elementary students
in Shenzhen was merely
the means for me to see the
world. The teaching was never
my intention, but like Ignatius’s
own cannonball moment, this
opportunity was an invitation
to something bigger. I fell in
love with the teaching. I fell in
love with the ability to connect,
reach, and guide these students
towards understanding, even if it
was just the ability to talk about
the weather. The invitation was
accepted, and my pilgrimage
began.
At Georgetown Prep, the next
stop on my journey, I was able
to foster the connections of
'cura personalis' by living in
the dorms, speaking to the
Taiwanese students in their
own language, and teaching
the poetry of Shakespeare in
English. In the public school
system in Maryland, I was able
to hone the art of teaching
while sharing stories of the diverse
human experience with a
diverse student population. No
matter how “different” people
seemed to be, we were all able
to see and empathize with the
shared and universal humanity
in the stories that we read.
I never expected to teach, I
never expected to be back in
Tampa, and I certainly never
expected to do both at my alma
mater. Undoubtedly, interactions
I had with the truly good
men and women as a student
shaped my life. I still have vivid
memories of teachers that were
invested in me to be a better
man and not simply a better
student; I still don’t know how
Mr. Mann knew my name
when I was never in his class.
But that’s Jesuit; that’s teaching.
Teaching is an art, a performance,
and a calling. No two
days or even two periods in a
Jesuit classroom are identical.
Each hour there are new faces,
new thoughts, new interactions
and dynamics, but still one
common mission: to lay down
your sword and live for something
bigger than yourself – to
be a ‘Man for Others.’ Each student’s
story will ultimately be
unique, but I pray the chapter
at Jesuit shapes them and that
the story’s theme remains the
same.
GREG
MALAFRONTE '05
Greg