when words become unclear, i shall focus with photographs. when images become inadequate, i shall be content with silence.
– ANsel adams
Unfortunately, for this post I will not include ANY photographs. That is because, for the first time in my teaching career, I did not have a traditional graduation ceremony to attend. This is sad for me because it was a special year this time, with added meaning. Each of the first two schools I taught at I only worked at for two years because I just wasn’t happy at either of them. It took my current job at the school I work at now (third time’s a charm!) before I felt like I fit in and was making a difference. Last year was the first graduating class that I had anything to do with the students when they began high school so it was a milestone for sure. Some of them I was directly responsible for making sure they finished strong and graduated. Others, I taught as ninth graders. I was proud of all of them. However, this year I graduated four seniors that came to me as freshmen on my caseload. It was my duty to make sure that these four young men got everything they needed to be successful, had good attendance, worked hard, and were prepared for life after high school. Despite the fact that I taught many others that are graduating this year (in fact, only one of these young men was ever in a class that I taught), these are the individuals that I am most thinking about as I write this message. I am extremely proud of them, I wish I could have seen them walk the stage, I wish I had the last two months of school to see them in the halls, I hope they are as prepared as I think they are, and I wish them the best. I want to say congratulations graduates to each of them, and to everyone else that has reached a milestone in 2020. Everyone that has completed high school, law school, medical school…their first, second, third, or fourth degree at college…they all deserve congratulations and applaud. They did it, they made it, they will always hold that accomplishment.