Reason #1  No relationship ever really ends.

As I reflect on my career as a teacher and my experiences in life, I realize more and more that relationships are a central part of my existence. My life IS actually made up of my relationships. There are only relationships.

With every new experience, I am new.  I am transformed. Change is the only constant in life. It is the only thing I can count on. Relationships work in the same way. They will be constant and they will change, but they will always remain a part of me. Relationships are constantly shifting, constantly moving with my experiences. The do, however, continue.  

I am not separate from others. Who I am and what I believe is reflected in my relationships.

Each relationship has the potential to move me to a higher level of awareness, to a place where I understand more about who I am.

Relationships evolve. I evolve.  Everyone evolves.

Even if someone is no longer an active part of my daily life, they live within me. They have become a part of my memories, my thoughts, my ideas.  I will forever be connected to all of the people who have entered my life. Forever.  

I wonder how this has happened with my students.  I can think back on students I taught in my very first year of teaching, 1990. When I think of who I was then, I wonder what my students experienced. I was so excited to finally be a teacher. It was my dream from the time I was a little girl. I was able to move from teaching school to my teddy bears as a four-year old to working with high school students who were only a few years younger than I was.  Some of them were older than my little sister.  

What did they take away from their experience with a 21 year old teacher who was teaching for the first time? Did I leave a lasting impression on them? I know that they did on me.  What will they have to say after 24 years?  It will be interesting to see.