Be Hatched

It is with great joy that I address the Class of 2018 today, at your graduation. It has been quite a journey this year, but now it is at an end. And I’m just a mom, standing here, trying to yell last minute directions to you as you walk out the door and get in the car to leave. My favorite quote is: “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." Hatch or Go Bad. Those are your choices. You can’t simply stay the same. So I have just a few things to remind you what you’ve learned over the years at Kennedy, to help you hatch. The first is: show up. It sounds easy, right? It’s not as obvious as you think, which is why I had to invent the “Tardy Party” for excessive late arrivals. Show up to class, show up to work and be there on time. Have the right things with you. You k...

The end of the year is in sight. While the finish line looks so close, right after that last sign of relief, the work, and the journey, will continue. Our students are preparing for finals and while scheduling their courses for next year. Their choices are reflective of their performance from this school year. They are working eventually towards earning their diploma, the ultimate finish line of high school. The seniors are gone. They walked out with clean lockers (well, mostly), finals complete. Next week holds practices for the end of the year celebrations. Done? No....Just beginning in fact. Even though I have a "milestone" high school reunion this year--my own graduation feels like it is a million miles in the past, BEFORE the beginning of my adult life. College, career, family...it's all just the beginning. The teachers are counting down too. Unless you have worked in the school, it's hard to know how emotionally draining being an educator is. I even fo...