To the Class of 2021;

My arrogance often eclipses reality; yet, I have been humbled by the year we are currently living through. It has been nothing but an honor to watch the class of 2021 graduate and work towards graduation for these past five years I have been lucky enough to watch them grow along with my career as an educator.

The Class of 2021 was my first class as a teacher; I taught them in their prime years of life during 8th grade. Oftentimes, middle school teachers are looked over for opportunities to address a class of graduating seniors. Here I am, then, I suppose: addressing them anyway.

You see we, as middle school teachers, see the most vulnerable a person will likely ever be in their entire life; through beginning stages of braces, outbreaks of acne, embarrassing interactions, voice changes, tiny and emotionally-draining crushes, long-lasting mini or large traumas, all those pieces of pre-pubescent life you're thinking about right now, middle school teachers are there. Yeah, it's a special kind of privilege to be a middle school teacher.

During my time teaching this class, I was teaching middle school language arts; my mind as a language arts teacher often gravitates towards words, stories, and, well, punctuation marks. Have you heard of the humble semi-colon? Many of you are likely using it wrong, unfortunately. Some of you are probably not using them and, instead, using the measly comma to separate your connected-yet-distant-and-ongoing train of thought.

I had better not make a punctuation error in this!

I digress; the semi-colon is an essential piece of the written word. The semi-colon connects without disturbing. The semi-colon allows for a pause while promising a continuation. The semi-colon creates and expands on ideas otherwise left alone. The semi-colon draws attention to otherwise lost moments.

For me, the class of 2021 was the semi-colon in my teaching career. The first-year of teaching is infamously challenging and discouraging. Ask any teacher around you. This class, however, turned what easily could have been a period - no, an exclamation point - on my teaching career and instead made it into a semi-colon; I kept going. And I kept going in search of a better class of students. I have yet to find one. And, for any of my current students tuning in, sorry not sorry; it's just true. I still love you, though.

Still, it's a special privilege to teach middle school. For the next four years, I get to watch them grow out of that stage and into real, functioning people. And this is the first class I have had the honor of watching grow up.

This year, during a pandemic, they persisted;

Struggling with grades, they persisted;

Moving forward through traumas I still do not fully understand;

Advocating for those without their particular privileges;

Grieving the loss of a classmate;

Overcoming the obstacles placed in front of them;

Laughing at the smallest and biggest things;

Creating memories that last to this day;

Terrorizing their favorite teachers;

Graduating;

;

In whatever lies ahead for them, I hope they keep connecting with others. I hope they can take a moment to pause today before they think too far ahead. I hope they keep expanding upon the ideas, knowledge, and experience they have learned here. I hope somewhere, someday, they can remember to draw attention to where they have come from. I hope they can continue doing what they do best;

I can't wait to see how the story continues for you all. We are all honored to have even a small a place in it.

Congratulations, Class of 2021.