There's a basketball camp going on at the local high school for a few days this week and for the price of enrollment in it, young girls receive a t-shirt, several days of instruction from one of the finest of coaches that I know of and a basketball, just like these. They learn teamwork, gain more confidence in their skills and just all around have a great time. Although I've never had the chance to see what they are doing, it sounds like a whole lot of fun. Four of my young ladies are involved in it and the basketballs shown above belong to them.
Seldom do I ever think of photos that I have taken in terms of just one word but this one I have and the word would be their "future". I'm not just talking about their basketball prowess as high school teammates but all that would go with it in the years that follow. The first day that the basketballs came I began to realize it and by yesterday I found myself straightening them up on the shelf and taking the photo.
I've been in the field of education for almost 40 years and I have been blessed to watch class after class grow up and begin life on their own. 35 classes of children back home in Kansas have sat at my desks and tables, learning what they needed to know to be successful not only in the next grade but for all the years that remain for them. Here in Colorado I have been most fortunate to have taught for two more years. My current class of 1st graders has been such a joy to teach and how I wish that I could see them grow up to be the adults they are destined to be.
Sometimes when I look at those little people, when I stop talking long enough to really see them, a lump gets to growing in my throat. They have seen tears come to my eyes before and the closer it comes to having to send them out the door on that last day of school, the harder it becomes to not cry. So we stay busy, really busy every single day but in our "busyness" we don't forget about one thing and the one thing is this.
We have fun and not just a little bit of it. We have a whole lot of it!
The basketballs are only one reminder, for that shelf could easily be filled with a mechanics' tool box, the implements of any kind of honorable trade, an apple for the "teacher", the keys to an ambulance or taxi or any other way to get around in this world, a musician's "play schedule" or a thousand other things too numerous to mention. The future of "the 20" lies ahead of them and my prayer as their teacher would be for one thing only.
"That whatever they should do, I hope that they have fun and enjoy the life they are given."
All of the mandated testing is complete in my room now and I am happy for the kids that they made it through. Less than 10 days remain for us to be together and those hours are going to be precious and few. I started taking down some things in my room and bringing them home to be packed up into our moving boxes. Every little picture that they have drawn for me was saved and I had a nice time last evening looking through some of them. They will go with me when I move in just 3 weeks more and I will remember those tiny hands that drew them for all of my life.
So to the ten boys and ten girls who have called me their teacher this year, I hope they know that they were loved by someone who called it a privilege and honor so to do. We probably didn't get to everything there was in the books in fact I'm sure that we didn't but we got to the most important stuff and you know what?
I can go to sleep at night knowing that.
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