Last night the football team played their home opener against a rival school. Over the last year or so, I've picked up the job of unofficial school photographer and about half of my work occurs on Friday nights. I've found in my photos that the gridiron is a place where all of our truest emotions are on display and this Friday was no different.
I cannot deny that my eyes may have teared up a bit at the sight of my boys walking on the field not as the playful sophomores I met two years ago, but as senior captains who carry the world on their shoulders each Friday night with more grace than most men twice their age. I feel so much pride when I think about these boys and all of my other students, too.
This is the best part of teaching the same students for three years: You fall in love. With every single one of them. I cannot quite verbalize how special it is to be able to work with these same wonderful children every day for three years and to get to watch the young men and women they become. I get to share in such a special time in their lives as they refine their sense of self and set out to explore the world. It fills my work with a meaning I'm not sure I'll ever find again. Over these years, I have given my students a piece of my heart and they have given me pieces of theirs in return.
This, too, is the worst part of teaching the same students for three years: You fall in love. If their victories are my victories, then their heartbreaks are my heartbreaks, too. I play witness to losses of all shapes and sizes and my students' lives have not been short on loss.
It is in those times of loss that the strength of the relationships we have built becomes so clear. Time and time again I have found comfort in my students as they have found comfort in me, even if it is just a hug on the sidelines after a particularly bad defeat. There is such a trust and understanding amongst us that could not have existed after only a year together.
This year, as my students prepare for high school graduation, I find myself also wondering what will come next for me as our district faces consolidation. As we wander together into the still-bleary future, none of us can say what will happen, but I feel blessed to know that with every step I take I will carry these kids in my heart forever.
