Unexpected Phone Calls

Again, it's been one of those up-and-down "roller-coaster"-like weekends.

Coming off a long weekend with Monday off from school, there was a lot to think about. Besides being wore out and tired from the same ol' thing, I didn't know what to expect today.

On Saturday, slightly tired from the night before, I had to supervise some basketball games that had started in the afternoon -- boys and girls games -- that were against my old high school. I knew their B-squad head coach pretty well -- he's only a couple of years younger than I am -- but we used to hoop it up big time at "The Owl Garden" at Robb's old place years back.

During the afternoon, I received a phone call from a past classmate of mine. At first, I didn't recognize who it was. Then, after she told me her maiden name -- ding! She was a really good friend of mine back in high school: she ended up hosting the senior party at her house after we graduated. Then she announced what I had been expecting -- the 10-year class reunion.

I still haven't come to grips about this whole reunion thing quite yet. Ten fucking years. It still seems like yesterday that we were pulling the imaginable back in the day. It's sometimes sad to think about, still wishing to pull off the stunts that we used to pull. But now, we're all married, kids are on the way (hopefully) and things slow down quite a bit. I'm just glad now that my friends and myself still have some videotapes that are quite incriminating...

For years, I really had a beef with the whole reunion thing. I really didn't see a point to it, especially the failed attempt to get a 5-year going. I heard that only 5 people showed up to that! It may seem selfish, but some of the people who I graduated with I couldn't care less about. It's not that I liked them, it was just the time where we went our separate ways, knowing that we'd probably never see each other again. I had my core group of friends and we've remained great friends even after all of these years. That group has since then expanded which makes it even more special -- basically, that's who I truly care about, who I give a call whenever I'm back "home."

But ... we'll see. A part of me aches ever so slightly, just curious to see how people have changed and how they've turned out -- hopefully for the better. It'd be pretty cool to show up, have a few drinks and be amazed about how much you can find out what happened in the past ten years.

Then, on Monday morning, I was hit up with tragic news. I received a phone call regarding the loss of a fellow teacher who suddenly passed away. He was the agricultural teacher here in the district, a popular one at that, who was currently in his 22nd year of teaching. From what I heard, he was only 44 years old.

This morning, it was going to be tough since most of the students didn't hear the news. We met early and discussed the plans for what was going to happen. But the whole time, it was complete silence. Thoughts of grief lingered with a few sobs here and there. Even though I'm a first-year teacher at this district and I really didn't know the person very well, it was just the atmosphere that really got to me. Add that to the fact that today is the one-year anniversary of receiving the news of Jason's death. It just hit home -- hard.

I have a prep period during the 1st hour of the day and I was glad that it was so. Thoughts just kept running through my head, thinking of Jason, dealing with grief, how to console the students who are having a tough time to cope. Also, it was quite ironic that it is currently FFA Week here at school and the teacher who passed away, was the FFA advisor.

After I sorted things out towards the end of the 1st period, I was back to normal. Things went on as normal through the rest of the day. A few of my students were gone to talk and share thoughts with others, completely understanable.

If things were relatively OK today, what would the situation be like if a student passed away? Last year before I had arrived, a student committed suicide. From what I had heard, that was a situation in which nobody felt anything. I just cannot imagine being a teacher and having to go through that, especially if it was a student who I have interacted with on a day-to-day basis.

Death is just one of those strange things that happen. It's a selfish emotion -- wishing that the person who passed away could come back and make things better, wondering if other people feel your pain and suffering. It's okay to talk to others about it and I'm thankful to work at a school in which teachers and counselors care about their students and have that open door to anyone who needs to talk.