Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — is set to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show. It’s a striking moment: a global artist performing primarily in Spanish on one of the most-watched stages in the world, a cultural reach far beyond the gridiron itself . Much to my husband’s ongoing disappointment, I am not much of a football fan. When we met, I watched his beloved college team play and may have asked some truly unfortunate questions — things like, “Are they going to get a goal?” and “Are they measuring the grass again? I didn’t realize lawn maintenance was part of the sport.” He’s a patient man, but I didn’t make it easy. While I’m not much of a football fan, I am a longtime teacher, which means I’ve learned to treat the Super Bowl as more than a sporting event. It’s one of those cultural touchstones you pay attention to simply to stay conversationally literate. Only in my case, the conversations happen in rooms full of teenagers, and they notice everything. Anyone who has taught long enough will tell you there are seasons when you just don’t feel like you’re connecting with your students. You still show up, you still teach, you still care — but something doesn’t quite land. Several years back, I was having one of those years. Sitting in my dim classroom after school, it hit me. I was losing my touch with them. Not in any dramatic way, just in the steady drip of tired answers and missed cues. Like reaching for a familiar light switch in the dark and not finding it. Teachers don’t talk about that enough — those stretches when you just can’t find a connection. And after teaching for so long, you’d think I’d be used to the ebb and flow, but it still stings. And for the record, anyone who has ever been tasked with teaching Federalism to 16 year olds will tell you: the content does not come with built-in adrenaline. There is no naturally occurring spike of excitement in the separation of powers. If you see a student light up during that lesson, check their phone — they’re watching something else. So one night, after putting my kids to bed, I did something that would have baffled my younger self: I scrolled YouTube and ended up in a Bad Bunny spiral. Nothing says “middle-aged teacher trying to understand her students” quite like the algorithm identifying your uncertainty and responding with increasingly enthusiastic reggaeton. I don’t speak Spanish, though most of my students do. But I didn’t need to know the lyrics to understand him. The longing for home. The tug-of-war between identities. The loneliness that comes from being the center of attention and still feeling oddly far from yourself. The way he carries his birthplace like something he couldn’t shake even if he tried. And suddenly I was thinking about my students. The ones who attend conference night with their parents and translate. The ones who live in the space between cultures. The ones who rarely show the weight they carry. I thought of a student who once had to step out of class to take a phone call because he was sorting out a utility bill dispute for his parents, who didn’t speak English.  He was 14. So I was thinking about myself, too. How easy it is, as an adult, to drift a little off their wavelength without realizing it. How sometimes the bridge back is something ridiculous and unlikely, like a reggaeton video at 11:30 p.m. when you should absolutely be asleep but instead find yourself having an emotional reckoning with a man in sunglasses who refuses to enunciate. On Sunday, when Bad Bunny headlines the halftime show — a Spanish-language artist at the center of one of the country’s biggest broadcasts — it’s a reminder that the Super Bowl isn’t just a game anymore. It’s a global stage, whether we’re ready for that or not. The post Finding connection in the most unexpected Super Bowl moment   appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less