HoC – So, it’s the last day of school.

“I thought it was interesting that you texted me that, because I’ve been bawling all day. I sent a video to my friends when I was mowing, and I did a Snapchat filter and it did a silly voice and I said, ‘Mowin’ and cryin’, mowin’ and cryin’; that’s all I’m doin’!’ I just wore my sunglasses and I just… You know?

“This is a big day for us. We do the Talent Show, we have fun, you get hugs. I think that all of the teachers, normally at the end of the year, there’s almost this, ‘Get ‘em out the door, put their backpacks on ‘em, get their stuff in there,’ but then I think that at this level [elementary education], every single one of us for one second throughout the day stops and thinks, ‘I hope somebody loves this kid this summer.’ You know? Like, ‘I hope this kid eats.’ We didn’t get that today. So, it’s been a harder day than I thought it would.

“I have said multiple times, I am the teacher that prays for a snow day, and gets the kids souped up. We do snow dances… Never again. Like, NEVER again am I gonna wish for a snow day. I’m pretty go-with-the-flow, easygoing, so when all this happened, I thought, ‘Okay, we’ll get through this, it’s fine.’ When they shut down school and my husband told me, I lost it. I worried and I stressed, and he said, ‘Sometimes you come home from school and you’re tired and stressed, and there’s the politics of school.’ But he said, ‘Looking at you right now, you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Obviously, this is where your heart is.’

“And I’ve never questioned that, but I see these kids from kindergarten to fourth grade. I know their families, I know their siblings. I know that ‘Johnny’s’ parents got divorced in second grade and that’s when he went through a hard time. We don’t have our eyes on them. This is a family. I love the kids in this building, and I don’t want to go anywhere else.”