IFYOU'RELOST,YOUCANLOOKANDYOUWILLFINDME. . .

besides my family, i share most of the rest of my life with my students. i tell them at the beginning of the year, "we are a family." and it's true, i look out for them and they for me, and we share, and we grow together. i know a lot of teachers say this, but i mean it: i love my kids.

so, today was a difficult day as i said goodbye to my seniors on news staff. i bought each of them copies of dr. seuss's "oh, the places you'll go" wherein i inscribed a little something for each, as well as quill pins for their graduation sashes . . . then, i told them that i loved them and that it was a pleasure being their teacher . . . and that i loved learning with them and through them . . . i gave them my spiel about following one's dreams, that people will pressure them to conform and pursue traditional paths of success . . . and that while that may bring happiness to some of them . . . they should never be afraid to define "success" for themselves.

and i cried. and they cried. and they said they'd visit . . . and i know they won't and it's ok because that is life . . . in all it's sweetness and bitterness.

i was so sad to see them go, but at the same time elated to see them start a new phase of their lives. and i remembered how scared and overjoyed i was when i was their age to be graduating from high school and going on to college, so i am mostly happy . . .

you know, i don't know that i'll ever have children. not sure i want to be a mother, not sure i'd be any good. but i can say that even if i never have any kids of my own, i feel blessed to be a teacher and to be a part of so many people's lives, if only for a little while.

and though none of them will see this . . . to my cartoonist, editors-in-chief, opinions editor, sports editor, and two staff writers (titles and not names, for obvious reasons): love, health, peace, laughter, happiness, luck, success, and prosperity always . . .

i love you.