Ok, I have a bittersweet happy story to share with all of you today, so: a thread: 1/8

Before I was a principal, I taught kindergarten, and before that I taught first grade. In my first grade classes, we started every day by writing in journals. Every single day, without fail. 2/8

I would put a prompt on the board, students could choose to use the prompt or write anything they wanted. They wrote, drew a picture, and then came and read me their writing. Every day. 3/8

At the end of the year, I packed up each student's journal with a letter from me, sealed into a large envelope. I gave it to their parents and asked them to give it to their child on their high school graduation day. 4/8

Last night: a FB message from a parent of my last grade one class, who had tracked me down, and wanted me to know that his daughter will get her envelope from me next week. She will not cross a stage or go to a dance, but she will get her envelope - a gift across time & miles 5/8

And now I am realizing that my last grade one class is the class of 2020, who will not get a "normal" graduation day. And I am sitting here weeping, because my plan was always to GO to their graduation if I possibly could. 6/8

So now I sort of want to see if I can find each of them, and send SOMETHING, to let them know that I have carried them in my heart across all these years, and I will carry them always. 7/8

And I know that in the big picture of our current crisis, cancelled graduations are a small thing. But there are 12 kids out there in the world, who will get the envelope they would have opened anyway, and that feels kind of meaningful, you know? End of thread