Just Sad, Take 2

Today will make post #3 that has deleted on me. I even remembered to press save before I published it and it just published a blank post, awesome. I will now be officially saving all my posts as word documents (which I did do for a few days after the last incident), so hopefully that will help.

Anyway, I'm going to try to write this post again but for the record this is not a post I wanted to write more than once. Or ever.

I received some terrible news this weekend. One of my former students was in a terrible and unexpected (and ridiculously unlikely) accident and has passed away. He was only nine years old. I also had his little sister in my class two years ago, and four other like-family friends who will be profoundly impacted by this. I am so sad for these eight and nine year old children who never should have to go through something like this.

This adorable little boy cried on his first day of kindergarten (that doesn't happen as often as you'd think) but then in what seemed like hours he made a bunch of friends and I never saw him cry again. Like a lot of five and six year olds, his favorite thing in the world was playing with his friends. He was a great friend too, the kind of kid who would go over to an upset friend and find out what he could do to help. He was incredibly silly too, he loved silly books and funny jokes. When I would catch him being silly at the wrong time and say his name, he would do this little eye roll thing that meant he was embarrassed. I always used to worry that he'd do that to an adult that didn't know him and they'd think he was rolling his eyes at them. Unlike his sister who would jump up and down yelling my name until I came to give her a hug, he would mumble a polite "hi" and look at his feet when I saw him in the hallway in first and second grade. He was never the kind of kid to tell you a story that goes on and on forever, but he would bounce into the classroom in a way that showed me that he loved school.

I am sad for his sister, who never stopped talking about throughout her kindergarten year, who always tried to get him to come visit me when she took an extra curricular class, who would always giggle whenever I insisted on calling him by his full name instead of his cooler nickname he acquired in first grade (I never really insisted, I just always forgot, once you know a name it's hard!).

I am sad for his mom and dad.

I am sad for all his friends.

So that's where I am. Just sad.

I didn't know if I should blog about it or not, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. So there it is. Hopefully my creative juices will come back soon. And hopefully this post will actually post.