It’s that time again!!
A time of excitement, relief, anticipation, and maybe a little trepidation. . .
Graduation Day!
The newspapers and Facebook posts are full of smiling faces from kindergarten age to graduate school. Parents, friends, and relatives look on with pride as their children get their certificates or diplomas.
As a mother of three sons and grandmother of two granddaughters I think I know some of the feelings involved. The Dreams! The Hopes! The Possibilities! The Love!
As a teacher for over 27 years of students from kindergarten to junior college to adults I’ve seen a lot, heard a lot, and experienced a lot. With certifications for English, special education, gifted education, and technology, in elementary, junior high, and senior high—-I have witnessed students surpassing what was expected as well as failing to accomplish goals that should have been easy for them.
Tears and joy, failure and success, and some seemingly impossible situations.
I’m glad I chose to be a teacher. I’m privileged to have watched these individuals in the struggles, happiness, and steps that they took on their journey to maturity and their careers.
Some of my students are now doctors, lawyers, nurses, translators, soldiers, parents, teachers, linemen, oilmen, cowboys, airplane pilots, realtors, farmers, store employees, and on and on!
Unfortunately two are in jail for allegedly committing murders, some spent time in jail for theft, and some got in trouble over drugs and alcohol.
A microcosm of life. The variety of humanity. Where struggles are real.
I found a lot of joy in getting to work with so many different age people and there was unique humor to sprinkle through the days. Today I was talking with a teacher friend and she shared that she had two students that were in day treatment who were back in the classroom for the last days of the year. One of them had his iPad in his backpack.
“I have a terrible stomachache. I need to get my iPad out of my backpack,” he told her.
“O my goodness,” my friend said to him with concern, “Let me call the nurse to come get you and see what’s wrong,” knowing what was behind the problem and request.
“That’s ok. I think. I’ll be ok if I just get my iPad.” Students are certainly creative!
From gifted to nonverbal, from fighters to shy, from those who claimed to see ghosts to some who had invisible friends who came to school with them—-there is never a dull day in the classroom.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-4: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. . . “
Undergird all your “times” with prayer and trust God in all . . .
