Bitter-Sweet...a revisit...

I was going through an old blog I used to ramble on from time to time before deleting it and I stumbled upon this post from 2012.  I found it funny that at the end of the post I welcomed the Class of 2016 to the high school.  Being that today is the eve of the Class of 2016's graduation, I thought I would share it again.

Bitter-Sweet

Spring time at a high school brings about a plethora of annuals...prom, break-ups, the inevitable questions "Are you counting down the days yet?" or "Are you ready for school to be finished?", and of course graduation.  I hold graduation as a bitter sweet moment of the school year.  While I know that it is my job as an educator to prepare my students for the next phase of their lives, it is at the same time hard to see them leave.  It is especially difficult when you have worked with extra-curricular activities like sports.  When you begin relationships with incoming freshman and then spend four years with them, they become part of the fabric of your life.  Some days you spend more time with your students and players than your own family.  Then that day in May arrives and they walk off the stage and for the most part, out of your life.  They will wave and talk to you at Wal-Mart, or friend you on Facebook.  And for the first year or two after graduation they will stop by and visit you at school when they are on break, but the relationship you once had is gone forever.  That is the circle of life for a high school teacher.  I don't want to sound all melancholy and depressed, this is just the reality educators face.  Some teachers avoid getting to know their students outside of the realm of the grade book, and to me that is a waste.  It is the relationships that make this job.  It is the opportunity to be involved and make even the most minuscule difference in the life of a student that makes the time spent worthwhile.  That is the bitter-sweet...in order to enjoy the relationship, you have to be willing to suffer the end.  What you end up with are the memories of a never ending cycle of four year relationships...if you’re lucky.  So goodbye and farewell to the class of 2012 you will be missed, and welcome to the class of 2016...your graduation is only four years away.

So I say to the RCHS Class of 2016...goodbye and farewell, you will be missed.  And to the class of 2020...welcome to RCHS, your graduation is only four years away...and that time will fly by!