"On For Cresbard High"

Continuing on my spring fever cleaning kick, I took on the office this morning. It is still a work in progress, but I have thrown out two bags of old catalogs and magazines, so at least I lessened the fire hazzard in there! It is still unfinished because I got caught up on one section of the room.
One of my projects was organizing newspaper clippings, etc. from my teaching days. I saved news from oral interp contests, plays, and some other activities the Cresbard kids participated in. It was fun to look at the pictures of smiling high school students with big dreams, remember the sound of the Cresbard Rouser, and thank God for those teachers with whom I formed lifelong friendships. By now the students have graduated college or will be soon, have become parents, or are planning weddings. The teachers have moved onto new adventures--one as far away as a tiny village in Alaska--and sadly, one lost her battle with cancer. What filled my eyes with tears, though, were the thank you notes I had saved from my students and their kind words they wrote as they left to go out into the world.
Cresbard school was such a special place. It was what I pictured when I had dreamed of becoming a teacher for my entire life. Respectful students, involved parents & teachers, and (my personal favorite) fresh baked bread or cinnamon rolls EVERY day made my three years there among the best of my life. What made it especially hard to say goodbye to those years was that I knew how good they were WHILE I was living them.
Of course, I have done alright in the years since then and now actually like being a stay at home mom (most of the time). But I did grieve the school's closing for a long while after I walked out the doors for the last time.
Recently I learned that several Catholic churches in our Diocese--5 in our area alone--will close in the next few years. Of course, it makes perfect economic sense and needs to be done due to numbers, etc. But, there is always the deep emotional hurt that comes with those closures. As these churches prepare to merge, there will be tears from those forced to say goodbye to the special people and places they have loved.
My little sentimental journey through my office reminds me that we are always moving onto new chapters in our lives--some better, some worse, some longer, or some shorter than the previous chapters. Once in awhile, though, it is OK to flip back through the pages of our lives to revisit those favorite chapters and smile--or perhaps let a few tears fall.