A beautiful, sad story crossed my desk today. Each year, our elementary school invites back the current graduating seniors for an after-school reception. We serve cake and have retired teachers come back to see the kids grown up, then the students usually tour the building, admiring how small it all seems.
This year was no different as we hosted a variety of 12 kids. Following the festivities, the small troupe took their walk down the halls and memory lane. A staff member found them later in the library. A couple seniors were sitting on the floor looking for past favorite books, the rest had gathered around the small tables sharing stories and recollections of their days as young Bearcats. As the teacher recounted, they all made their way to the table and took turns laughing and remembering shared experiences. When she announced it was time to leave, each student thanked her for allowing them their moment together to relive the past. Walking out, one student mentioned, “This was fun, but remember, tomorrow, we’re not friends.”
And just like that, real life returns us to cliques and prejudices that we like to think are limited to high school. But high school is real life for those kids and real life is not much different than high school for many adults. We’d like to think this comment was an isolated instance or a teasing remark, but we know there is plenty of truth even in humor. From time to time, the beauty of shared human experience transcends who we think we are to who we know we should be…and that is a disposition worth calling out and developing throughout our schooling experience.