Well, we’ve made it to the end of the year and as summer break is officially upon us, now is both a time for relaxation and reflection, a time for looking back on the changes this year has brought upon us and the changes we can look forward to next year. This school year has been a whirlwind of good times, hard times, laughter, tears, dramatic speeches, scoldings, paint chips, seedlings, Canadian flags, birthday doughnuts, morphemes, bedsheet togas and (at least in my case) lots and lots of coffee.

It’s difficult to measure the success of a year in any quantifiable way. Do we as teachers focus on grades? Lessons imparted? Student engagement? Attendance? Happiness? Every experience contributes to the whole and, on the whole, I believe our students have made the most out of what this year had to offer and have learned much along the way. They are different people now than they were at the start of the year; they have changed, I believe, for the better. And though the human capacity for changing, growing, and learning has always been an elusive quality to measure, I believe this is the best indicator of how the year has gone. We’ve all changed and that’s a good thing.

Change is hard. Change can sometimes happen unexpectedly, can sometimes leave us feeling lost. It’s difficult to navigate new terrain without a guide, with only the experiences that helped us before. The familiar seems more and more comforting as the unknown looms ahead, forbidding and promising in equal measure. But then again, that’s the beauty of learning, of life, of being a human being in this wide world of ours. We’re never going to know everything. We always have the opportunity to keep on growing and learning and changing and being.

This year, we said goodbye to a number of our students. Some of them are off on new adventures in public elementary school, taking the skills they have learned here and putting them to use in the real world. And some are heading off to high school, to pursue further education, make new friends, find their way in the world. Fall is going to be a scary time for them as they step into the unknown, as they have to change once again to fit into an unfamiliar environment and find their place. But fall is, of course, the season of change and as the year goes on, I’m confident they will find good soil, put down roots, grow in new and fantastical ways.

Roadways wishes all of our students, old, current, and incoming, the ability to accept change and to use these new opportunities, these new horizons, to create something brilliant and carve a place and a path in the world. After all, you cannot travel a road without the path changing around you, without unfamiliar sights, sounds, and experiences shaping you into something new.

Take care this summer, all you readers! We look forward to a new, bright, and different 2022-2023 school year.