It was a normal morning. I took the extra time to fix coffee and ran into my room exactly 7 minutes before the bell rang. At 8:40am, I had hardly noticed that Megan hadn’t been in to say good morning and “love on” my Success kiddos. The morning was going quickly. When our new guidance counselor, Erin, came to my door and asked to speak to me privately in the hall, I (who am usually terrified by those kinds of things) wasn’t even alarmed. Until she said, “Megan has been in a car accident.” Megan was fine but Anna had “head injuries.” They were taken by ambulance to the hospital. I decided in an instant to leave and go be with them at the hospital. I planned to go alone. I even suggested I go alone. Angi and Lee, two other Freshman Academy family members, had other plans. They were going. When I reasoned, “we can’t just shut down the freshman academy for the day,” Erin said, “no, but we can shut down guidance and we’ll cover for y’all as long as you need.” In the panic of the moment, I took a huge sigh of relief and took off for the ER.
12 “short” hours later, Anna is stitched up and at home watching movies with her grandma and favorite aunt. Megan is bumped and bruised and having her moments, but she will be ok too. We joked today in the waiting room that she’ll now be making her kids sit in car seats (like Anna was properly today) AND wear bicycle helmets until they’re 40.
There are so many other outcomes that could have come out of this day. It’s hard to believe that at the end of it, anyone could feel more blessed than yesterday, but I think we do. Even Megan and Matt. In a time when teaching in more frustrating than ever, when state rules changes daily and teachers find out by reading the daily news, when kids value their sneakers more than their education, it’s such a blessing to feel the arms of an entire high school reaching out and hear prayers going up for one of our own.
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