A Note To My Students

Good morning students,

Unfortunately my internet at home was not working properly so I have run out of time to complete the devotions. It is a bit of a rushed day as I am in Gatineau doing teacher training there. However, there are a few things a did want to share with you this morning.

The first is that I want to encourage you not to give up. I know that there are less than 4 weeks left in the school year and some of you are not looking forward to 3 weeks of summer school (last year it was 4 weeks) but I encourage you not to give up. How you end this year makes a difference. I would have preferred that all of you had done well all year long but it just did not work out that way. There were many factors for this including the change to Social Studies and the adjustment to all the computers, yet you should not look for excuses for your failures.

What you can decide to do is give it your full effort and end the school year well. Sure you may not be able to finish everything but you will end the year feeling good. It is better to end with a good experience than to feel you are sneaking out having completely "bombed" your year. In this I ask you to trust my experience. It matters. It matters to you, it matters to me, it matters to your parents. It means you will return next year feeling better than you could have felt.

The other thing I wanted to share is that some of you will be facing changes over the next year. Some of you will not be returning to us for various reasons and others will be shifting from one level of study to another. Change is hard. It is hard on everyone. Change is what you will have to face for the rest of your life. The statistics say that you will have 14 to 18 different jobs before you are 38 years of age. Change is always happening. The one constant in all of this is Jesus. You need him, more than ever because he is the only one who can make sense out of all of this.

Yet again, change is not an excuse to sit back and not put in your best effort. If you are leaving us then go out on a good note. Go out giving it your all. Go out with your head held high knowing that you did your best work in the last three weeks. It matters. I am telling you that when you look back it will matter to you.

Some of us have known each other a number of years now and we have grown to know each other well. I cannot imagine some of you not being here next year. But change happens, and it is just as hard on me as it is on you. Believe it or not I will miss you. I will even miss you guys over the summer. You know, regardless of what kind of year it has been for you I am very proud to call all of you my students. I promise you that I am not going to slack off in these last few weeks. Please make the same promise and let's end this year on a high note. God bless you today.