On the horizon, I can see...

...graduates.  It's a simultaneously wonderful and horrible event.  Graduation means that all these people who we have spent so much time with, worked & sweated with, taught and learned from, and ultimately, came to treasure...they are leaving us.  They are taking that leap, soaring out into the world.  I find that I love and dread this time of year.  

However, we all have a role to play.  A huge part of me is envious, because it's a beginning, and how many of us would love to have a do-over with the knowledge we have now?  Raise your hand!  I know I am one of them.  Of course, I know that I am who I am, now, because of all those experiences from my inauspicious beginning.  I might be someone very different if I had a do-over.  So, if I want to see any changes in who I am, I can have a mini do-over, right?  One can dream!

However, right in front of me, these graduates are beginning to morph into those people.  Sign my yearbook, Ms. Ray.  Come to this presentation, Ms. Ray.  See what we have done.  Leave a mark for our future.  I constantly tell my only Media assistant of 2 years how much she will remember my words in 20 years.  She swears it's not true!  I think that she will be surprised.  It is my hope that my words will have a positive impact, and be remembered as such.

​One presentation included a gift to a teacher that I had a hand in helping them create.  A tripod completed on the Makerbot.  GIS students learn to measure with precision, and so, this is a symbol of looking ahead, and seeing what could be by measuring what is now, and figuring out the tools needed to make a change.  So, the horizon we see, now, will be forever changed by the students who are leaving us.  We will watch from here, and applaud them as they go.