Looking back.. and forward

Wow! Here it is Canada Day. Hard to believe it is July. Even harder to believe that I have been back in Canada for over a year (that anniversary came and went on June 21). When life is busy, time just has a way of flying by and next thing you know three months or even a year have gone by. The last couple months of school just flew by and suddenly it was June 27. It was an interesting, and for the mostpart, enjoyable semester teaching at my old high school. Some of the highlights were the Thriller dance done by the teachers at the coffee house fundraiser, raising money for cancer (teachers doing the relay, students raising money in various ways including lots of shaved heads), and the year end girls rugby game in which they played each other in old grad dresses. I happily donated my old, obnoxious pink dress to the cause and was surprised to see it survived the game intact. Yet it went to a glorious death as the girls attacked each other after the game and my dress was torn to shreds. I think just about every member of the team went home with a piece of my dress tied on to their body in some fashion.

June 27 was graduation day. It was the first graduation I have attended since my own high school grad 15 years ago. It was strange to attend a grad ceremony so many years later in the same place. The thought occurred to me as I was handing out gowns before the ceremony... what if I cry? I cried at my own grad. I cried at this one too. Not for what's being left behind.. as I think was probably the reason I cried at my own grad.. but for what's to come in the future. Because for these students their future is just beginning.. they can go anywhere, do anything. Some of them already have. Like the two girls who went to Africa last summer to build a school. It is such an exciting time! It made me think back to our grad song.. yeah, it was country.. but the message is a good one, courtesy of Garth Brooks. Here is the first few verses.

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changin' as it flows
And a dreamer's just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what's behind you
And never knowing what's in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores.. and

I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I'll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry

Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
'Til what we put off 'til tomorrow
Has now become today
So don't you sit upon the shoreline
And say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance the tide..

I hope they do...