School Days

The kids are getting out for summer.
I wonder if any get the same feelings I did on that last day of school. In grade school and middle school the last week was always such a lazy week. Tests were over, homework done with and for the most part it was a clean up week. We turned in books, cleaned out desks, received papers and artwork that had been proudly displayed and bulletin boards were taken down. I remember at Juliet W Long, in good old Gales Ferry, Connecticut we had a "field day" where there were races and relays and ribbons to win, followed by a party back in our classroom. In middle school, we didn't clean out desks, but lockers. It was always bitter sweet for me. I missed teachers and the everyday routine, but summer was a time of freedom. Friends were almost always just a bike ride away, of course things were simpler then. Parents didn't need to worry about their kids being too young to ride to a friends house. They didn't worry when we didn't come home all day. Hell.....I bet my mom really loved it when my brother and I would go next door and get our good friends Kevin and Lisa and head off to the woods with a packed lunch.
Adventure awaited!
Rock hillsides to scale...
Open Fields to cross...
Deep woods to explore...
Ravines to descend...
Tadpoles to catch..
A pond to fish at...
A small creek to wade in...
There never seemed to be an end to the fun of summer. When I moved to Ohio it was vacation trips with the family, day camps, and then the wonderful, NO PARENTS, canoeing trip (camp) and biking for a week across Ohio (another camp). What freedom....what an opportunity to discover ones self.

And
on another note...

Do you have a teacher who inspired you? One you saw more in you than anyone else ever saw? I had one in middle school. I was always a low end C student. I just never felt an urge to do more than I needed to. I think I saw school more as a social gathering, a place to meet up with friends. Then one year I had a teacher who always pushed me. Push, push, push, I thought he hated me and just wanted to pick on me and make the days horrible. One day after I had had enough, I mouthed him back. He sent me out to sit in the hall. After about 5 minutes he came out with a chair, sat next to me, looked me in the eyes and said, "I push you because I know who you are. I know you're smart and I know you can do more than just skate by." He continued to talk to me. Some how he knew about other things as well... some of the not so great things going on in my life. He knew I was struggling to find me. He also seemed to know that at times I felt like I was drowning within my own family. That conversation stuck with me. I took a new look at myself and thought about how an adult showed faith and belief in me. He was someone who would listen and often when he saw me after school ( ping pong club, gymnastics, art club, intramural sports) he would stop and ask how my day had been. When track season came around (he was coach) he encouraged me to come out. I did.
Because of him, I found myself.
Because of him I applied myself to school and became an honor student; an honor student who would one day wear gold at her HS graduation.
Yesterday I found him on Facebook. I wrote him a note.
He wrote back.

Thank you Mr Cracas you were my inspiration to be more.