My kiddos

After posting last night, I looked back over previous posts from years gone by.  I only started this blog when I decided to move to China, so it's obvious that I'm in a different place than I was way back then, but it still surprises me to see just how different everything was.

Looking back over those early posts and comments, I can't help but think of my students back then.  We developed a code so that they could post comments and not have to write their name or give away any personal information, but that I would know who they were.  I still know who each of those codes represented and can still close my eyes and remember being in the front of them in class.  I miss them.  I miss their 5th grade questions and thoughts and love.  My goodness those kiddos knew how to love.  They meant the world to me, each and every one of them.  I love that I am still in touch with many of their parents and get to hear little snippets of how life keeps on going for each of them on that side of the world.

When I think back to those kids and other than I have taught, I sometimes wonder if I should have stayed.  I could have taught their younger siblings, watched them grow up, been that teacher that they could stop by and say hi to long after they had left my classroom.  I could have gone to that state-championship softball game, watched that swim meet, or been their YoungLife leader once they changed schools.  I could have answered that phone call to meet up for coffee and hear the scoop on life in high school.  So many could haves...

And yet I don't regret leaving.  They knew that I needed to.

And the kids here need me to.

I love my kiddos now to the moon and back, just as I have all of my students over the past 6 years.  They are going to change the world some day, each and every one of them.  I'm teaching kids who are from every corner of the globe and whose impact goes far beyond what I can imagine.  I am so grateful to be a part of each of their lives.

But I won't be able to have a coffee with them when they're in high school, because most of them will have moved by then.

There is an amazingly enticing quality to life in one town for the rest of my life. 

Being a TCK really stinks sometimes...




Location: Chengdu, China
Local Time (CST -- GMT+8): 8:11 p.m. (3/22/2015)
Auburn Time (PST -- GMT-7): 5:11 a.m. (3/22/2015)