2018

6 years is a long time. It's the entire lifespan of a muscrat. And it's how long I've had the chance to lead middle school students at my church. My favorite thing about middle school is their unique ability to both want to play double-reverse-duck-duck-goose followed by an actual conversation about their real life. It's my favorite age group to work with.

I had no idea what I was doing when I started. The first class I led, I was along for the ride and hoped for the best. I'm sure I told terrible stories and I'm not sure why the girls came back week after week. It definitely wasn't me.

But this class - the graduating class of 2018 - I totally thought knew what I was doing. I had 3 years of experience under my belt. What could possibly be so different about a new class?

class of 2015

2018

Well... the answer is pretty much everything was different. The first thing you should notice about these classes is sheer number. I started with 3 girls in my small group when I began leading. This round, it was more like 20. Their first week was semi-quiet as they tried to figure things out, but it only took a couple before this class came in screaming. I mean: SCREAMING every single week.

I tried to remember all of their names but there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 variations of the name Madison. I still have notes in my phone with their names like "short and blonde. just like all of the rest of them." And just when I thought I knew their names, they brought me friends. Friends who's names were either names I'd never heard before as names or more variations of Madison. AND we had a set a triplets and a set of identical twins.

The more I got to know them, the more I got to know their families and their situations. And they were heartbreaking. Parents who chose drugs over their kids. Or alcohol. Or boyfriends. Or all three. Kids who had heard the words, "you were a mistake" come out of their parents' mouths. Ugly divorces. Foster care. Moving. Loss of one or both parents' jobs. And a smattering of really great, really fun, really dedicated girls from really fantastic families. All in - mostly - harmony together.

there's a good possibility I tell kids to take pictures as if they were "mid-sneeze"

And this bouncy, energetic class of what feels like 100, let me into their lives and their stories and cried to know that their time in our middle school program at church - with all of the crazy games and jumping around and screaming - were over.

They taught me about life - real life - messy and full of energy.
I watched them lose the childlike innocence of being just a kid and they walked - loudly - into the craziness and uncertainty of adolescence.
They showed me incredible strength as they walked through unthinkable pain. Things no one should have to go through, let alone someone under 13.

And I found an incredible group of men and women to lead this class with - people have come and gone - but they've all left a mark on my life. The kind of mark you get when you do battle with someone for 1 year or 3. They're the sort of friendships you only get from the shared experience of life with a huge group of middle schoolers, which is a sort of war in and of itself.

So I'm grateful, class of 2018, for your boisteriousness (except when you're singing at 3am in your sleep).
Thankful for your energy and how it gives me energy just to hang out with you.
Amazed at your strength to walk bravely through hard things.
And with the complete and total knowledge that most of you will never read this because "Facebook is for old people."