My Final School Article

This post is mostly for me, but others may be interested.  On my final day at school, I sent out this note to families.  I liked it, and I wanted to save it.  It will remind me of how much I enjoyed the year, of my friends, of the good things going on at school.

Dear Independent Families,
 

Those of you who have known me for a long time, and now many of you who have just known me for this year, have realized that I have a song for anything . . . and I make up lyrics to songs, just because the rhythms fit . . . or I use songs as analogies.  And if I could sing as well as I can remember tunes, I might be rich . . . but that was not to be, so I just annoy people with my songs.

Be that as it may, when I left Independent in 2006, my final article used an analogy from the famous Bob Dylan song, The Times They are A’Changing.  It was appropriate for that article, but not for this one.  So I thought maybe the Sound of Music’s famous So Long, Farewell would work, but it has an air of finality that I am not ready to embrace.

And then I thought of the song Elphaba and Galinda sang to each other in the musical Wicked.  When our Middle School went to Carnegie Hall with the Prairie Rose Wranglers, we were lucky enough to see Wicked on Broadway.  Our whole Middle School was there, and what an amazing time it was. (That group of students not only sang at Carnegie Hall, but then many of them went to China the next year to sing there.)  I digress, but in the musical, one song seems perfect for my final article. Excerpts of the song follow:

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime.

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you.

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart.

And now whatever way our stories end,

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend.

I do believe I have been

Changed for the better

And because I knew you...

I have been changed for good.

This song says so much about what relationships should be.  No matter what happens, if we can look at every situation as a learning experience from which we can grow, a new opportunity to open our minds, a chance to gain a new friend, we are better people - we are changed for good.  And I know, from the bottom of my heart, that I am a better person today than I was when I walked into The Independent School on August 6, 2018. 

You have shared your children with me, and their hugs, smiles and accomplishments have given me hope for the future of our city and country.  You have shared yourselves with me, and I have gained such an appreciation for new ways to talk to, discipline, and teach children. We have come together as a community, walking again together toward the same goal.  My heart is full with the love and encouragement you have given me. 

I am so very excited for the future of The Independent School.  Handing the school off to Mr. English is such a positive step. His knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of independent schools in the midwest gives him a great perspective for leading our school.  When I talked with him before he was hired, I told him he would handed a peach of a school. And his response was that he intends to turn it into an orchard!

I know you will embrace Mr. English just as you embraced me.  And with all of us assisting him, his dream of a peach orchard can come true.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to share the year with you.  It has truly been a joy.