Time Capsule

Every year, I have my students fill out an "application". It was part of our standards, that students could fill out forms, and the first page is set up like a job application, a life skill! Each year for the last eighteen years, I have had my students fill out a time capsule. It is four pages of information ... their family, their friends, what they like, what they don't like, their goals, about their school, the styles, their dreams, their future career, predictions by the time they graduate and by the time they are 25 years old. It is fun to listen to them think and talk about all of the options. Then I gather up the applications, all the pictures from our door and room, I collect other odds and ends, and seal it in an envelope. The envelope is opened at the end of their senior year. I invite my seniors back to visit and tell me all about their next adventure after graduation.

What makes this year's seniors special is unable to fit within the time capsule itself. As I remember the "year" together, I was pregnant with twins, and I spent the last two months of the school year on bed rest (as in the highlight of my day was laying on the couch, watching the clock and imagining what my students were doing at school, email updates of the day-to-day from my fourth grade teaching team, making lists for my dad to do when he visited, and thrilled when it was time for another trip to the bathroom, my only excuse to leave the couch). Seriously, when you are a teacher, and you can't teach, I'm not going to lie, there were some tears at missing out. In the eight years that have passed, half of my students moved away. There were some financial struggles and opportunities for my families. Here are some of my "kids"that were able to make it back ...

Two years ago, I invited back another class of seniors. This is one of my treasured memories of time capsules. This special lady passed away this past week. I've lost two students this school year. There are not words that can fill the spaces in my heart that belong to these two students. I am so thankful for the adventure of sharing one entire school year of their lives and the spaces in my heart filled with so many more special students.

Best. Job. Ever.