Programming for Beginners

The first thing she taught us
was how to recognize a thought.

Until then I had assumed
thoughts were a kind of weather —
something you stood in
and tried to wait out.

She drew a circle on the board.
She said: this is a thought.
She drew a square. She said: this is a feeling.
She drew an arrow. She said: thoughts cause feelings.
She drew another arrow. She said: feelings cause behaviors.

I had spent thirty-one years
in a country
whose grammar I did not speak.

She handed each of us a piece of paper.
She said: write down a thought.
She said: write down what it caused.
She said: notice that you wrote it down.

I noticed.

I had been writing things down
my whole life,
and not noticing.