Some days...

Some days it's really hard to be a teacher.  Not in the grading papers, attending meetings, making copies kind of way, but in the heartbreaking grief kind of way.  The way that leaves your soul bare and your reserves exhausted.  We lost a student last week-not one that currently attends West, but one that we let go just  a mere seven months ago.  He took his own life.  He took his own life.  There is no real reason to repeat that except as an attempt to wade through the actuality.  So, yeah, we lost a student.  The kids came in the doors, and there we were to greet them and do our best at walking them through the first day of the rest of their now very different lives.  It's a pretty tall order.  It's not having the words; it's not being able to fix the broken; it's feeling such sorrow yourself that you don't even have what it takes to fake a conversation.  Some days it's really hard to be a teacher.