"Larry"

I work at a mid-school right now…have been for a couple months now. I always get on the cases of students who go around talking smack about one another and what not, or if they’re out of control. It was just today that I remembered how small the worlds of mid schoolers can be and how they can grow exponetially in the course of a class period.

When I was a mid schooler, we had a classmate who had hanged himself accidentally, and it made our world grow a bit. We met new people, we learned how to console the loss and how to pick ourselves back up and dust off. Two years later we had a classmate diagnosed with cancer, and again our worlds grew a bit more. Things that were supposed to happen to adults were happening to us, so again we learned something new about ourselves; that we could band together as a school and hold fundraisers to help a cause, and our worlds grew much bigger. Then the student passed away, and we learned that nobody is given a promise on how long your stay here is, and our world grew.

Today in one of my classes I had students crying, and I found out that their world was about to grow as well. “Larry” was diagnosed with cancer. Terrible as it was, it was nice seeing my students who usually can’t stand one another learn to console, and grieve, and learn that their world is much bigger than the walls that surround them 8:00 to 3:00, Monday through Friday; though I am very saddened to hear the news that another 14 year old is having to grow up so fast in so many ways, I am equally as happy to see students put issues aside and begin learning what it means to be compassionate and lean upon one another for strength and support.

A very meloncholy Ma’hogany