Back to School, Back to School

The First Day of School is nearly here! Although it happens every year, it always happens differently and it is always somehow new, and there is always somehow a first new something.

Back to School often means packing things as if to put into a bag -- packing up books, new binders, new pens, new pencils, new laptops, new tablets, a small special lucky something, packing up notes, packing up memories of the summer, packing up treasures to take to the dorms, packing up and making room in that packing for more packing -- Back to School is so very often about Getting Prepared that sometimes we forget to pack up something intangible but imperative: thanks.

This back-to-school season, we’d like to to thank the people who make it happen -- all the people who make it happen. To that end, some thank yous are in order…

To Parents/Grandparents/Step-Parents/Nannies/Aunties/Caretakers All:

Thank you for raising wonderful, open-hearted, funny, kind, inventive, delightful, impish, creative, athletic, artistic, empathic, open-minded, adventurous, brave, giving, clever, awesome humans. Thank you also for being those humans. The world needs you, and so on behalf of the world (and ourselves): THANK YOU FOR GETTING US READY.

To Teachers/Mentors/Professors:

Thank you for giving so much more than your expertise to our children/to us/to your colleagues/to your field. Thank you for sharing your compassion, your humor, sometimes your weekends, sometimes part of your summer vacations, your creativity, your intelligence, your insight, a particular piece of your particular attention to each particular student, for seeing potential and promise in places many of us forgot to look, and for showing us how to find those things ourselves (both as students, as parents of students, as colleagues of yours, etc.).

To Librarians:

YOU ARE HEROIC AND WONDERFUL AND ALL TOO UNSUNG.

To Students: THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE.

To Administrative Staff: Thank you for keeping us in order.

To Custodial and Security Staff: Thank you for keeping us safe, in all the ways you do.

To Coaches and Directors: Thank you for your guidance and direction.