Summer {School} Love

In June of this year, I taught math to 5th graders during summer school.

Not my ideal assignment, but summer school has always been worth it financially, and emotionally.

Each group of summer school kids has taught me some lessons that wouldn’t have been possible during the regular school year. We have smaller groups, and in many ways, we can learn more from each other.

This summer was no exception.

I had two groups of kids who taught me a little about life and a lot about love.

Two of the kids, let’s call them Alyssa and John, started dating. One was in my homeroom group and the other, in the group I got in the afternoon.

They made all the googly eyes at each other and had their friends tell the other one that they liked each other. It was summer {school} love and I was stuck in the middle of it as the kids passed through my classroom throughout the day.

I tend to roll my eyes when middle schoolers date, but I also try to remember that I was that age once, and I had plenty of googly eyes for boys back then (and even earlier) too.

Alyssa and John though, were clearly from different worlds. Different cities, different backgrounds, and different circumstances. A true Shakespearean love story unfolding before my eyes.

Each one, respectively, would talk to me about the other one, and I had to ask John multiple times to stop gazing at her through the window in my classroom across the hall into the window in hers.

The second week of school, he brought her a necklace, and during recess they would walk laps around the gym talking.

I knew John didn’t have a cell phone, because he needed my phone to call home one day, so I asked Alyssa, “how do y’all talk?”

She responded, “At school.”

I thought to myself, that was fair enough, but then I asked her again, “what are y’all going to do when summer school is over?”

She just stared at me.

I didn’t want to burst either of their bubbles, but I also know how painful it is to say goodbye to someone you love.

Eventually, we got to the last day of school, and Alyssa and John spent their last recess walking laps around the gym and discussing how they were going to make this work.

Alyssa came running up to me and begged for my help, “how can I talk to him when he doesn’t have a phone?!”

“Well, you could always write him letters.”

She thought about that for a second, walked away, talked to John, then came back. She asked me if I had a piece of paper.

I handed her one and a pen and she wrote something down and folded it up. Then she ran off.

She never told me what it was, but I assume it was her address.

John came over to me and said they would make it work and they would see each other next year at summer school. I asked him, “you’re willing to wait that long?”

He said yes without hesitation.

Here I was thinking that these two 11-year-olds could never make it work, but maybe, just maybe, stories like that still exist.

I don’t know what happened to them after that last day, or if they ever wrote to each other, but all I know is that I pray that if those two are meant to work out, they will get assigned to the same summer school location next year.

Lesson? Love, actual love, knows no boundaries and finds you when you least expect it.

❤