March 3, 2014
The haggard look. The gasping for air. The shuffling walk. It's not just the cold that has worn down our students, faculty and staff. Last Friday we completed our first five-day, uninterrupted, routine week of school since December. We're simply unaccustomed to such exertion. I write this at my kitchen table on the first school day after that full week – surprise, surprise, a snow day.
It has been a winter to remember – or, better, forget. The lack of flow in instruction, the miserable temperatures every morning, the influence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (look it up), have all played into a tough start to the 2014 educational experience.
Still, there are hopeful signs. I left the building last Thursday night around 6:00pm. Despite the extreme cold, I could see lacrosse players running around on the stadium field. It's a sign that spring might just be around the corner.
Our school year is moving to its end with plenty of activity, none of it sluggish. Seniors know it. They are sweating the last of the college admissions decisions in a few weeks. Invitations are being extended and tuxes and dresses are being coordinated for Prom. Full names have been verified for printing on diplomas. The opportunity to be exempt from finals is incentive for some to resist senioritis and post good quarter grades.
Right now, even the keenest amateur meteorologists in our building, the ones who get very excited by snow, are of one mind, "Make it stop!" We give thanks for the continuity of last week, we persevere in the classroom, and, in the best traditions of the Xaverian Brothers, we march onward in faith, ready for the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.