Friends

The summer barrels toward its conclusion and the school years pulls us into its beginning.

I meet with a lot of adolescents who are preparing to transition to middle and high school, and other families whose loved ones are starting in a new school or a new vocational opportunity. I walk with caregivers as they doubt and deliberate over services and supports for their child. As many folks wonder and worry about the start of new routines, what we need are relationships.

Of all these, friends feel most important to me

The years roll by and the marks on the door frame grows higher reminding us of how time passes. But the glue that binds and holds the fissures tight are the relationships we forge with peers.

You are lovable and waiting to be loved

I wish more people knew this and felt this often enough to hear it in their heart from memory. All the quirks and intense interests are tinder for a burning flame of future connection. I wish I could cast a spell that lasted for years convincing children that what they like is really cool.

And that someone else will believe that, too

Common interests and shared time together in the same physical space; those ingredients are ones we all have in stock and can share with others. I wish you the confidence to share freely.

Your insects and your weather

Your Legos and your welding

Your astrology and your fairies

Your gems and your writing

Your coding and Your projects

They wait to be held dearly by another

Your joy is a gift to others

As summer sets and autumn wafts in through the cracked windows, I hope you meet someone this fall that prizes you and holds you as dearly as the ones who already love you do.

Back to School

Summer sizzled into September and hastened with heat the beginning of the new school year.

Many families worked with their loved ones over the Labor Day weekend to ready themselves for new classes and fresh faces in places both familiar and entirely new. Some boarded a bus, some shared a van, some saw their home return to a school setting, and some left their home.

There are so many moments in life where the next level feels so unclear, but not with school.

You start a new grade that's a higher number or greater distinction. You literally "level up" in the video game of your educational and vocational life. But even still, the grade level tells only a small portion of the story.

Are you ready for what comes next? Have I prepared them well?

The bus comes, the van pulls away, the kitchen is now class, and the class is in another state.

Students of every age and ability likely approach the school year with anticipation, but this feeling careens between the boundaries of hope and doubt as the first day dawns anew here. 

Will I feel safe? Will I learn something new? Will I make friends? Will I be included in this?

They arrive in bunches and in droves of a diverse beautiful sort on the threshold of their school. Their teachers greet and guide them down a path they have worked so hard to prepare, and the thankless endeavor of raising our children's minds and hearts begins anew for them. These teachers and their tandem forces work silently to set the occasion for learning and growing.

How can I reach her? How can I help him? How do I talk with their parents? How can I do this?

Upon teachers and their teams are foisted the blessing and burden of educating our children. They ready their classrooms and unpack their belongings and beliefs in less than one week and they do so with a smile and a scientific method to their presentation for our general benefit.

Whether you are a student or a teacher, a parent or administrator, I would encourage folks to hold fast to the belief that we are quite literally all doing it "for the kids" as we start out now. Even if we don't see eye to eye on every moment between meetings and miscommunications, I believe we are playing for the same team that is our children and their future as it unfolds.