Favorite Seminar

Last night was my very favorite seminar of the year. It's the seminar in which I invite last year's grads to come and talk with my current juniors.

These ladies left us last May as teachers, but they come back in February as teachers. They have lived their first semester, and they are confident, incredible teachers. I love their honesty, and I love hearing their stories. I especially love seeing how they have grown into themselves. You can see shadows of previous mentors, but they have really come into their own.

And then I look at my juniors, who are in the hardest year of their lives, and I see them smile. I see them breathe a little bit, and I hear them laugh. The graduates become their light and their confidence boost.

And then my freshmen come in at the end, all bright eyed and a little over-whelmed and lost, but for the first time I really see them see the future as a reality. As a flesh and blood possibility of what will come.

It's magic. And I would be lying if I said I didn't have to bite my lip a time or two. These students become my kids, and while I love to launch them out into the world, my heart bursts when I see them all together again and doing so very well. It's a wondrous thing.