God works in mysterious ways. And if you’re a nonbeliever, or a skeptic, maybe this post might give you some insight. Or not. Whatever you make of this post, I hope you enjoy reading it, nonetheless.

As I’ve stated in my previous posts, lately I’ve been thinking of a career change. The teacher burnout is real, even though I truly believed teaching was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. This year’s group of students have been less challenging, but the fallout from last year's group of now-8th graders, and the way education is negatively changing, has only had me rethinking - every day - my career choice.

Today, however, reminded me why I truly love teaching. I was literally almost out the door at school to go home when I heard my name and then saw three very tall boys in the front office.

I recognized them right away.

My students, from my first EVER class of teaching (a throwback, to teaching 6th grade English/Language Arts - I looped with that class and taught them again as 7th graders when I moved up to teach American History after the Civil War) were there from the high school, to pay me a surprise visit. They took time out of their day to come spend time with me.

I'm amazed at all the little details they remembered, like:

#1: How much I love listening to Bruce Springsteen

#2: All the historical propaganda posters my History Nerd team (Lisa, Thomas, and Keith) and I had in our classrooms

#3: The lesson I gave them on the World War I home front - one of the boys was like "The Canary Girls! I remember when we learned about them!" (shoutout to Dr. Kevin Matthews for teaching me about the Canary Girls when I was a student in his college courses at GMU...I was thrilled to be able to teach them all the wonderful topics he taught me)

#4: What an incredible 7th grade history teaching team we had at my first middle school I was employed at

#5: The first year History Club existed...and all of our activities and field trips

All three boys are now sophomores, they are much taller than me now, and their voices have deepened...but they still were as happy and joyful as the middle schoolers I remembered them to be years ago. They've matured into intelligent, self-aware, and respectful young men...I'm relieved the pandemic didn't quite impact their minds and their academics as it did other students.

I'm so grateful they appeared in my life today to give me the motivation to continue to share my love of history to the next generation. It was so nice to be told by them, verbatim, that they were lucky to have me as their history teacher.

My heart is full. I was inspired by today’s events, so I decided to take time to reflect with a quick blog post and share my gratitude with y’all.

I’ll do better not to take these moments for granted…especially when I’m faced with the tough days education and teaching usually throws in my way on a daily basis.

I’m forever blessed.

many happy returns,

-kate.