In the past two months, my entire life has changed. I moved to a new state. I lost my grandma. My daughter started a new school and my husband started work in a new location. I said goodbye to colleagues and a team that I loved. I hugged kids goodbye that I love like they are my own children. I left my role in the classroom and took on a role as a school leader. We left behind our little home in the small town where I grew up. Drove away from the little white picket fence where our baby learned to take her first few steps and then, seemingly overnight, became a ten year old. I’ve been too busy to take it all in. Unpacking my clothes. Unpacking my dishes. Unpacking my heart. Two months of non-stop change and forward motion.
Too busy until today.
At lunch, running across the playground, I got a tiny tight-gripped hug from a student in my new school. As he bolted away, I looked around. Surrounded by passionate teachers, excited learners, and this? I believe in it. There’s a magic about it all that is something special.
I may have lost so many things in the past two months. Some of them are things that can never be replaced. Some big memories that I carry with me. But, the vision that keeps me awake at night about what learning truly is and what I always wanted school to be when I was a tiny kid running to hug the teacher?
This is it.
Every day when I get up and the sun comes up over our campus, I’m doing something I believe in and something magical is happening. Something called learning.