Are your parents still together?

This week has been very challenging.....again.


Thursday, while my students were doing a writing sample for the state, they had to write about someone they admire or someone who has influenced their lives (positively or negatively).


While writing, a student in my fourth period class, whom I call Barney Bernabe, asked, "Mrs. Clemens, are your parents still together?"


I responded, "Yes, they are."


He took a deep breath and said, "Wow!  You are SO lucky!" At the same time the rest of the class exhaled in awe.


This gave me pause.  


Earlier this week I was reminded (through the misfortune of one of my students) how lucky I am to have my parents for a completely different reason, but just two short days later, I have realized that I take for granted the good things that come with having parents that are still HAPPILY and JOYFULLY married.


For being so much older than my students, they teach me so much daily.  Their lives are remarkably challenging.  The sadness seems to never end.  My heart breaks...


There is no "organized chaos" in their lives, and I am beyond grateful to share the understanding that 90% of the time the chaos in my life is organized, albeit chaos.


Maybe the changes that need to happen in my classroom this year are supposed to happen in me!  I hate learning lessons....especially when it is my goonies teaching me. 


They make me feel like I do not have anything useful to teach them when their thoughts, fears and feelings are so profound.  I know that this is NOT the case; I do have things to teach them; however, that does not make it any easier  to know my life is blessed, and theirs seems so disheveled and unstable.  I want them to live the blessed life I did....or at least one excruciatingly similar.