Thanksgiving is one topic I blog on often. I did a quick search on my posts regarding thankfulness through the years:
In November 2012, I gave thanks by simply posting a picture of my family, what I am most grateful for. A year before that, I listed ten things I am thankful for as Principal of Harold Martin School. In 2014 around this time of year, I wrote about having an Attitude of Gratitude, “as a time to build thankful habits that will last long after the last turkey legs are polished off.”
Today I’d like to repost my thoughts from two years ago when I wrote about my minor troubles at home and compared them to a sister school in Texas that had just experienced the tragic floods of Hurricane Harvey.
It is certainly possible to find gratitude amid trouble and be thankful for all we have. Happy Thanksgiving all!
Reposted from “Principal Reflections”, November 11, 2017
Routine took a vacation last week. I experienced a “Snow-Day” thanks to an unusual wind/rainstorm that hit the Northeast with a few inches of rain and winds as high as 50 mph. We had to cancel school due to impassable roads, and we joined the scores of other schools in New Hampshire with similar travails. It was a detour from the beautiful fall we’ve been experiencing.
Not only did I wake up to no power, but I had three inches of water in my basement and no hot water. I have a great appreciation for my multi-talented and generous brother-in-law, for we were able to deal with the water issues early on. Thus, I was given the gift that every school administrator longs for… a catch-up paperwork day free from meetings. It was also a tiny reminder of what friends and colleagues across the country are dealing with after storms in Texas and Florida. My friend and fellow Principal Rita hails from Houston, she lost nearly everything in her home as the result of the hurricane, and she and her husband are currently living with a friend while their house gets back in shape. Rita also has a very positive outlook on it all and is much more concerned with the plight of her hundreds of students than she is with her predicament.
One of our Harold Martin teachers linked our schools up with a teacher named Jennifer from Orangefield, Texas, and we adopted her classroom, which lost nearly everything in that hurricane. Jennifer writes:
Things have been crazy on this end. We have not been able to go back to our school. Walls, floors, cabinets have all been ripped out. All of our Elementary students have been moved to the junior high campus. Our books, supplies, and anything that survived the flood is boxed up at the Elementary campus and they just allowed us to go back and grab a few things to teach with a couple of weeks ago. My classroom is in the jr. high computer lab. We are working with limited supplies and no books! We do all our lessons via teacher computer. It works but surely not ideal. I am one of the lucky ones because I have my own room. Some classes are doubled up in the lab, library, art room, etc. My kids are resilient. They are doing great. Many living in campers in front of their flooded out homes. I had one student who was very excited that they finally got air conditioning and were going to make a trip to the furniture store and would be able to move back into their home this weekend!!! I would like to thank you and your school from the bottom of my heart for your kindness. We are truly blessed.
Thanks to the generosity of the Hopkinton community, we have raised nearly $600 thus far for our colleague Jennifer and her students. I also hope our students felt grateful for their situation and compassion for those who have experienced loss.