What Becomes of a Broken Heart
- Paige Hicks, Ed.S., NBCT
- May 20, 2019
- 3 min read
It’s a hard time of year for me. It’s exciting to see the latest graduating class leave the nest and find their own path, but my heart breaks that they are leaving me. My family and close friends will tell you that I am like this every year, that I say that THIS group is special, or I’m really upset about THIS group graduating. But honestly, the Class of 2019 is especially close to my heart.
Somehow, I made it ten years before I was ever assigned a homeroom. In the fall of 2016, I adopted a group of sophomores, the Ss; I’ve called them the Smiths and Company. After meeting them a few times, I knew I had my work cut out for me. There were waaaaayyy more boys than girls. Like three times as many. At first I thought it was going to be a long three years until graduation. Come to find out, once I embraced the locker room vibe that accompanies a room full of teenage boys, I got closer to them than pretty much any other students I have ever taught.
We’ve been through a lot together - standardized testing, skinny block advisory classes, girl troubles, sports ending, dancing, intense UNO games, YouTube country music, moving, moving, and moving again, the never-ending “war” with Willis World, the college application process, and now, senior events. I have made it through Senior Awards Day, Baccalaureate, and the Senior Walk. Thursday’s commencement is going to be TOUGH.
And as much as I adore my homeroom, they’re only 18 kids out of the 240 or so. The C/O ‘19 helped me rediscover my love for teaching sophomores. During 2016-17, I had about 40 of them in my sophomore history classes. What a wonderful group they were! I had several of them again for junior history. This class also includes the first kids I got to teach three times. Some of them I had in two history courses and a test prep block, and some of them took my new psychology course. One unfortunate homeroom student had me for history and then AP Psychology, so on advisory days, he spent about four hours with me. Poor kid. Another student, whom I affectionately call The Informant, was always honest with me when I needed information, no matter how trivial or serious the situation.
The C/O ‘19 has some truly sweet students in it. I have witnessed numerous altruistic behaviors from members of this class. Beyond serving as leaders of the school, I have seen everything from paying for classmates’ tickets to events to ensuring everyone in their classes had partners for group work. Two students in particular stand out to me, but many of them do it all, without being asked.
I have no doubt that the members of the C/O ‘19 are going to go far. And as excited as I am to see them take off and conquer the world as adults, my heart is broken. I know what lies ahead; I know that no matter how close I am to them now, it all changes after Thursday. Sure, I’ll see many of them again, and social media makes it easy to connect with them post-graduation. But the dynamics change. Seeing them frequently changes. The interactions change.
To the C/O ‘19, congratulations. I wish you nothing but wonderful things in your future. Thank you for making it easy for me to come to work every day. I am forever grateful. I will always be here for you. You have my heart.
It is always bittersweet, but I have also found that those classes that I taught multiple times tended to be a little harder to let go of.