Magical creatures

Today I said goodbye to an amazing group of young people, each of whom managed to make a huge impact on me over the course of the past year. I've been doing this for ten years now. You'd think I'd be used to it, but each year, in the week before Christmas, I come home from what seems like the longest day of my life, feeling somehow both inspired and deflated.

Teaching Grade 6, each year, means always having to let go. In seven weeks, these students will divide themselves among six different high schools, and what they do from here on out is none of my concern. Ideally. In reality I will think of, and worry about, those 29 kids often over my summer break. I will anxiously await any significant news about them, which has worked its way along the grapevine, upon my arrival back at work at the end of January.

I work in a tough community, and this year has been tougher than most for each of them. Several tragedies, and other unexpected events, have shaken them and chipped away at any part of them which still believed the world was only made of good. I know I was lucky to be able to hold onto this ideal for much longer than they have been. They are growing up in a completely different world to the one I grew up in.

What has amazed me, and made my heart double in size repeatedly this year, has been their collective ability to stand back up, each time they have been knocked down, and refuse to let those experiences define them. The particular brand of resilience these kids have demonstrated is one I've rarely seen before and have all shown bravery, strength, and courage at every turn.

I had a brief opportunity to sit with them today and just talk. I thanked them for being the best parts of my day. I made sure they know they are each every bit the superheroes they sang about together in their graduation song at the end of today's ceremony. I made each of them promise to look after each other. I'm confident they will.

I don't think it occurs to kids how much they are able to teach us about ourselves and the world just by being around them everyday. I don't think they now they're made of magic. I'm going to miss this bunch like mad, and I may not be able to listen to this song again without a tear in my eye, but each of them became my superheroes this year.

"When you've been fighting for it all your life
You've been struggling to make things right
That’s how a superhero learns to fly
Every day, every hour
Turn the pain into power"