This past school year, I got to spend part of my Friday mornings with some pretty unforgettable third graders.
Unforgettable because some of these kids have faced challenges that I may never actually be able to wrap my brain around. Most of them were born without many of the privileges that were somehow just handed to me. Many of them fight through ridiculous obstacles just to get to school. But mostly they are unforgettable just because they…are.
Today I said goodbye to them. Their school is closing. Not just for the summer. For good. Or for bad, if you ask me, but don’t get me started. (Where will these kids go now? Why do they have to get split up? What about the teachers who have cared so sacrificially for them? What about all the rest of the turmoil some of these kids live with? Isn’t that enough instability for one young life? Does this actually help anyone learn anything?)
Anyway.
I spent my last hour in their classroom today, packaging up notes they had written to one another.
Goodbye, sweet little hearts. I won’t forget you.
by julie rybarczyk
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