Still Here

I'm still here--just incredibly busy. But some beautiful things have happened recently, so I'm just going to list them.

1. S hasn't figured out how to stop doing impulsive or violent things, but she does seem to be better at apologizing soon afterward.

2. S finished her research paper today, which was due months ago and was one of a handful of assignments that threaten her completion of 10th grade. I think the other ones will also get done.

3. I started writing again, finding a way to revisit a project I'd started five years ago, thanks to the encouragement of a writer who visited our campus.

4. S's college buddy K and her fiance asked me to marry them; I know this will be one of the most meaningful weddings I'll ever have the pleasure of officiating.

5. The campus finally had a memorial for my friend Gremmels, and it helped me to find closure.

6. I finished an online parenting class and learned a lot about how to better deal with my daughter's trauma; I also made some new long-distance friends in the process.

It's that time of year when I should definitely be grading or saying goodbye to the seniors who I love who are graduating or doing pretty much anything except posting here...but I felt like I had to do so, even though this is brief. All of the above items could be entire blog entries on their own, and I hope they will be once the students are out of town and my work life gets quieter!

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