First Day of School, Year 18

First day of school, year 18. I’m starting the year teaching in an empty classroom to a large screen newly mounted on the back wall, zooming with 24 faces.

But here’s the thing: they are not 24 faces; they are 24 people. Burgeoning humans. Wonderfully made, wonderfully flawed. And they will show up.

They will show up and I will meet them, and together we will slog through the educational miasma of 2020. We will remember to sit up straight and laugh at ourselves and wipe the mud away from our eyes and sigh deeply and laugh again and DIG IN. Because we move society forward. That’s what we do.

First day of school, year 18. I am so excited: I get to teach today.