Gratitude for My Readers

Thank you for taking a chance on a new book about a teacher’s struggles, about life’s struggles, about failing and still believing. Thank you for reading through the struggle, knowing it could end with purpose. For all the darkness of the cover and the sadness in the stories, it truly is a book about hope.

You see, hope is all around us, even as we are surfing through life’s waves, rising with the swell, riding the crest, and falling in the crash. We are a part of a rhythmic purpose. The fact that we crash allows for our next rise. The fact that we rise assumes we will soon fall. And it is as beautiful and meaningful a process as the waves we watch when the sun sets behind them.

When I wrote this book, I pledged to be as rawly honest as possible. At times, it was embarrassing to write of my ignorance when it came to issues of diversity. But I did not stay ignorant. I asked and I learned. I apologized and I moved forward. That was my rhythm. I fell and I rose.

Always, I tried to do justice to the lives I loved with my words. Without people like you, their stories could not come to life and my book would be dormant words on printed pages. You have awakened the ink and entered the plot. You have made my stories a part of your story. In that way, we are connected.

The thing that I keep seeing, as I work with kids who are vastly different from me, is that our similarities abound. We are always more alike than we are different. I am thankful for the hundreds of students I have taught and for the dozens of colleagues I have had. I am thankful for the highs as well as the lows. And now, I have a new reason for gratitude. Thank you dear reader, for being a part of this journey.