Well, here's a final post for the year 2008- and getting ready for another year to come.
I was sorting out the neverending paper supply of the past that seems to survive sorting and cleaning out, and found a lot of names from the past. From my teaching notes over the years, there were a lot of odds and ends of things and I found some of the Hollenbeck Middle School summer school notes that brought back to mind so many recollections of the collection of energetic, defiant, resourceful, mischievous and honest minded students that could bring out so much frustration and then make you feel that your day was well-spent by working with them. And this was only for summer classes that I mention from 2004. They are almost adults now and I hope other teachers were able to do their best for them all.
The students that I had at Lincoln brought a longer history for my time with them and I see some of them from time to time in the community. These students were equally as remarkable but of course, I knew them for a long time, some of them for years. I hope their year was fine.
Then I found another item from the funeral of my friend, Tomas Orcasitas, Class of Summer 1968. It was on New Year's Eve in 2002 that his body just could not work anymore and we lost him. He was a good friend of mine and of a lot of other people, too. I was kind of surprised to think that six years had passed since he died. He was a special person, and the first one of my good friends to die. I did not see him very often in those last year's but we spoke on the phone and he always made me laugh and was, above all, very opinionated and passionate about things. Miss, you, Tommy.
I guess that the New Year's Eve for me is a time of recollection of the things we've done and people we have known. I would like to think that no matter what time of the year it is, that we do things thoughtfully and consider that our time for everything is limited by things other than our own desires. Nevertheless, we can all make our decisions for the best- and who wants to make decisions for the worst?- and work in a positive way to improve things. My friend Tommy was somebody who was one who cared about others, especially young people and enjoyed getting them motivated to do better- but knowing him over the years, that was no surprise.
Have a Happy New Year.
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