Looking Out for Others

While I'm not at all a fan of cold weather, I do love Christmas. I think that I have appreciated this holiday more as an adult that I ever really did as a child. Growing up, we never had a live Christmas tree, so when I had my first apartment in college, I decided that I wanted one. My wife, Erika, still laughs at me every year when we pick out a tree, in memory of the giant tree that filled up my small, one-bedroom apartment that year. With that tree in the apartment, there was only one side of the living room that could see the TV and you had to maneuver around it to get into the hallway. It was ridiculous. In true college student fashion, it was decorated with cheap ornaments and a homemade garland of beer bottle caps. While it showed my love for the holiday, looking back it was very ugly.

Fast forward almost 20 years and Erika decided that it was time for us to update our Christmas decor this year. With our kids with friends and family last weekend, we set out to buy new decorations. We had a great time, and while I'm usually not one for spending the day shopping, I had a blast getting ready for Christmas. I was so excited to post pictures on Facebook of our new things in my celebration of the holiday. And that's where it started. Several teachers saw what I posted and what I didn't post, was my actual tree. (I still have a problem buying large trees, but now I just have bigger rooms to put them in.) This week several teachers were genuinely worried that the small tree in the corner that I took a picture of, was the only one that my family would have this year. They took the time to check on me and finally broach the subject of why I didn't have a real Christmas tree.

By now, you've probably learned that I like to use daily events to tell a story or lesson, and this week is no exception. This week's Christmas tree misadventure taught me a lot about how teachers pay attention to those around them and try to look for signs that something isn't quite right. I never noticed that my Facebook post gave clues to people around me that something in my home was out of the norm. In the same way, teachers notice their students and can pick up on small signs that show that something may not be right. We have seen quite a bit of that lately as students struggle with hunger, depression and family problems outside of the school. They wear small signs that they may not even realize. But caring people in our building have paid attention and took those signs as a chance to help. That help has probably comforted more students than we may ever realize.

In the spirit of the holidays, I want to say thank you to those of you that look out for me as well as all of the other people in our building. I have always asked that we work hard to take care of ourselves as well as one another. I learned this week that you all do a great job of this.