And just like that, the school year is over (almost)!

Our seniors have graduated, and several of them are in Europe on their long-anticipated Senior Trip. Our SOL/SOR students are taking the last of their finals. Our SOG students are gathering up their textbooks to turn them in to their teachers tomorrow. When the clock strikes noon on Thursday after the dust settles from this busy week, I suspect that we will all look around and say to one another, “Wow. I can’t believe this school year is over already!”

During my career in education, I have referred to graphs like the one below to give teachers some perspective on their school year. Can you relate?

We start our school year with a sense of anticipation. It’s exciting! Buying new school supplies, meeting our new teacher(s), figuring out who our children’s classmates will be, getting to know new families, etc. Then classes begin. Oh, my. Even if you have one child at Veritas, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to keep up with the week’s school work. You buckle down and do what you need to do. It can be described as Survival Mode at times. Winter Break arrives. Yay! Then you come back from that nice, long, wonderful break. Insert sad face (disillusionment). You realize that you have an entire semester ahead of you, and it seems discouraging, like it’s never going to end. Spring Break comes and along with it you feel a renewed sense of motivation: Only one more quarter to go! And now in May, we are reflecting on our school year. What did we do well? What could we have done differently or better? How did we get here so quickly?

Much like the school year cycle, we all go through seasons in life where each of these words might be utilized to demonstrate where we are sitting. You have gotten to know me this year through these articles, and looking back through them it should be easy to track the seasons I’ve experienced. I’m nothing if not transparent! But I wouldn’t have gotten through any of the seasons I encountered this year without Jesus. I could not have imagined some of the personal trials I would have to walk through (like my still persistent left side headache), but thankfully there were many joyous celebrations in my family (I went from having zero to two future daughters-in-law and had two sons graduate – medical school and undergrad – during our school year). This wonderful, supportive, praying community lifted me up so faithfully and I am grateful beyond measure.

I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 3, which states (I’m only taking just a few excerpts from the chapter), “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to seek, and a time to lose…”

I’m incredibly thankful for the time that I had the privilege to spend with you.

Blessings,

Michelle

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