There's Always Hope for a New Day

As I sit at my kitchen table on this Sunday morning, drinking my coffee and looking at the sunny fall sky, I look back on the first quarter of this school year and all that we've tackled.  I say tackled because it's far too early in the year to say accomplished. We're just getting started.

Everyone has goals for different aspects of their life. Personally I want to run a competitive race some day, but it's way too early to put a distance on that one (ultimately I want to walk afterwards) My morning run today allowed me to see the sunrise, and a beautiful one it was.  This is my favorite time of day, early morning, before most people are up and moving.  It's quiet, peaceful, hopeful. I don't have to be accountable to anyone or anything at this time except myself and my own thoughts.  A new day brings hope. Hope that what I did not accomplish yesterday I can today. Hope that yesterday's troubles or frustrations will have resolved themselves and magically disappeared. Hope that I can do it better, whatever IT is.

This is how I see the beginning of 2nd quarter tomorrow.  With Hope. All the projects we've tackled so far that aren't quiet running as smoothly as we would like, I'm going to face them with hope that they'll start moving in a better direction.  The technologies that I'm going to continue to introduce to the staff, I'm going to do so with the hope that a few more teachers will jump on board and choose to integrate them into their classes to engage students.  In my own classes I'm going to continue to draw out those students that prefer to quietly hide behind their work, with hope that they will embrace the content.

I'm also going to challenge my students to have hope for their 2nd quarter, especially the seniors.  Instead of saying "Let's set a goal", I'm going to say "What do you hope for this quarter? And what are you prepared to do to make that happen?"  Just typing this out makes it feel more positive.  In the blink of an eye it will be June and graduation time. I don't want to miss a day of inspiring these students, and I don't want them to miss a day, EVER, without hope for the better.

So now that the sun is up in the sky, and the world is more awake than it was a few hours ago, I set forth on this sunny day with hopes of my own, as I do every day I am fortunate enough to see the sun rise over the fields of my midwestern home. I thank God I am here to experience another day, and promise to put forth the effort to make a difference in the life of someone else.  That is how I will know Hope has been passed on to someone else.