JOURNAL: June 9, 2006

Yesterday I had two pleasant gatherings with students – one with my current 9th grade students, and another with a group of former students. In the morning, I took the 9th graders through a rehearsal for their “Poetry Night” reading tomorrow night. The kids were tired and restive after their long graduation rehearsal, but, like the good people they are, they were fairly patient and attentive as we went through the program. I’m glad I had a box of tissues on hand, because several girls started crying as their classmates read their poems on the theme of “goodbye”. Our school is like a second family home to most of these students, and departing at graduation will be difficult. My second gathering with students happened later, toward evening, when I met with a group who graduated five years ago. I felt honored to be invited to their reunion, and we had a wonderful time exchanging stories and bringing memories to life. Theirs was a class I had dearly loved, partly because we just had so much fun together in English class. It was a pleasure for me to see them all again, and to relive those wonderful days when we all seemed to bring good spirits to the classroom each day. In a way, those kids were like this year’s 9th graders – full of an overpowering enthusiasm for living. I will miss this year’s graduates greatly simply because they, too, understood that laughter is the shortest distance between two people. I think they learned that laughter and grammar can exist side by side, and that makes me happy.