End of the School Year

I've never been a big fan of the end of the school year.

Call me weird, but it's true.

I want summer. I don't like the last week or two of school that's corporate babysitting (and hoping none of the kids do something they'll regret!) I also don't like the packing up and sudden void when school ends.

Don't get me wrong: I find a way to fill the void soon enough! I love summer! But that first day when my badge and keys are turned in and it's all said and done feels a little hollow or like unemployment.

This school year had an especially difficult ending: another student died.

At the beginning of the school year, there was a murder-suicide that involved a family in our community. I did  not know the student at my school, but I knew the older brother and mother. I was asked by another parent to help break the news to her son (he had yet to hear).

On what should have been the last teacher workday this year, an emergency staff meeting was called. The principal gave us some details about how several of our students were involved in an accident: one died. The other two were injured. I did not know the student who passed away, but I personally knew the others.

Sad times.

I'm not going to relay the bits and pieces I've heard here out of respect. I don't know the whole story and it's not my story to tell. The surviving students will be marked by these events and I hope that the tragedy will be a catalyst that builds character and responsibility instead of weight that destroys them.

My prayers go out for the families affected and that God would turn our mistakes into His glory.