Goodbyes

Estimated reading time: less than 3 minutes:-)

As a student, mid-May is a season of goodbyes.

There is something unique about the high school experience, something that isn’t replicated anywhere else. In just four years, you are touched by thousands of lives. Sometimes you meet people you will remember for the rest of your life. Sometimes you meet people you think you will remember, and then forget and feel bad about it. And sometimes, rarely, you get the privilege of clinging onto a select few friends for years and decades after.

Yesterday, the LuHi class of 2020 had their last day of school—on zoom.

Every year students leave. Every year I must say goodbye to cherished friends.

But this year was different. Maybe it was the unique quarantine situation the class of 2020 had to struggle with. Maybe it was the fact that some of my best friends are seniors this year.

But this class was special. I’ve never seen such joy in the face of heartbreak. I’ve never seen such resilience and innovation. These people did not act like typical high school students these last few months; they acted with maturity, grace, compassion, and love.

It is the nature of youth: things keep changing. Every time you feel like you’ve gotten a good grip on something, it somehow slips through your fingers. You move. You pass classes. You graduate from JV to Varsity. You join clubs, you leave clubs. You go on trips. You move again. You make friends and lose friends. You forget about people. You swear you will never forget others.

To all the people I have known: you will always be a piece of me. Whether you were only my teacher for a semester or my best friend, you have impacted me. Whether I’ve only seen you in passing or talk with you everyday, you mean something to me.

I could go on in detail about everyone and everything I will miss about the 2019/2020 school year, but I wouldn’t be able to fit it all into a single post.

Instead, I hope.

I hope that you know I will never forget you, as long as I can. It is the only consolation I can give the class of 2020, and the only consolation I can give to those who float in and out of my life like beautiful autumn leaves.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ~ “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

To me, you are worth remembering, and that says something.