I have always loved my students. Some more than others, and all for different reasons; but with rare exception, I have been able to find something loveable about them. When you spend 185+ days with a kid, you laugh alot, cry (usually not in front of them), hear the bad and good about home, and see them in daily interaction with the world around them. There are days you just wish they would go away and let you move on. When Dana and Erin were small, I'd tell them, "Your teachers' job is to teach you, not to be your friend." and I meant every word. Teachers are not friends. We are a myriad of other roles in their lives, but friend cannot be one of those roles. Now, more than ever, I see us as guardian, counselor, and comforter. Home is not what it was, and by the look in their eyes, you see what is missing. I feel it when they walk past me and either just run their hands along my shoulder or fall with full abandon onto my lap and arms. As I age, I find my role is less and less academic and more and more about really teaching them what they need for life; others before and after me can impart the "book learning," but I feel COMPELLED to invest my time and energy into making each and every one of them feel loved and valuable and full of an amazing future. 185 days doesn't seem long enough to impact a life in that way. It all makes the stuff of school business seem ridiculously trivial.