I have been teaching for the last seven and a half years and I’ll be honest I have only lost two students.  I lost my first student the summer between my first and second year of teaching.  He was in a car with some friends and they got involved in a race and it ended badly.  He died on the scene and his best friend spent a lot of time in the hospital and then he was never the same after that.  The accident happened in the summer and I didn’t find out about it until after school started the next year.  I was really sad because he was about to be a senior and I felt like he never really had a chance.  Then Saturday morning I find out that I’ve lost my second student.  This particular student graduated in 2013 and he was part of the last class of seniors I taught.  I had in my class for government and economics.  He was one of the sweetest students I ever had and he always had a smile on his face. I am especially sad about this student because he took his own life.  I can’t believe his life was so terrible at 20 that he would hang himself and end it all.  I have been sad about my student for a couple of days.  I have worked really hard to try and reconnect with as many of the students from his class because I want them to know that I will always be there for them.

Tonight I got a huge surprise from yet another former student.  I received a message from one of my students from my first few years of teaching.  He said he wanted to thank me for everything I taught him.  He said that he knows he didn’t appreciate it back then but he does now.  It made my day to see such a sweet message at such a sad time.  i told him how much it meant to me and he said that he would always be there for me the way I was for him and his sister.  I don’t teach for appreciation but it is really nice to know that I have touched some students along the way.

I am attaching one of my favorite pictures of that senior class.  I hope they all know how special they are to me!!