From the looks of things around Facebook, today marks the unofficial last day of school (or at least the distance version of it) across the country.
The timing is a little different for our family, as for the past five years that we've been in Montana, Memorial Day weekend has been a "catch-your-breath" kind of weekend before one last push and week full of final exams, field day, awards ceremonies, and class celebrations before senior commencement. We would normally try to rest, study, do some gardening around the house, and pay our respects to those fallen patriots by participating in a Memorial Day service.
This year, however, due to COVID-19, Memorial Day services are cancelled, and everything with school got moved up a week; thus, the weekend puts a bookend on the academic year, and probably none too soon - though our daughters handled it like champs, the 2019-2020 school year came with its own unique challenges for our family.
I mentioned to Megan last night that the past six months have really been my first experience of living life apart from a set seasonal schedule. It's not that there are not seasonal aspects to the calendar of a tech company; it's just that they seem to be ones more fluid than my previous 49 years have included.
Growing up on a farm, there was always a set time for planting and for harvesting; having a mother as a teacher meant that schedules (breaks, etc.) were almost identically aligned; college was a different-but-same version of a school year. Running a camp and a conference center was all built on set seasonal calendars (with school schedules always in mind), and becoming a teacher and then eventually a headmaster brought things full circle back to this familiar variation on a theme.
It's different now; not bad, but different, and I'm feeling it today - like the first time I was away from the farm during harvest or wasn't sending off campers at the end of a summer. I'll miss facilitating the ceremonies of matriculation and saying goodbye to students (some for good as they graduate) as part of bringing closure to another school year. Not having this closure is the hardest part of any of this for me, but the hope of Heaven and God's restoration of all things - what will be the ultimate closure - is what provides comfort, always.
So, to those graduating (in whatever way or version it takes), congratulations. May you experience the joy of this completed season, and may God lead you to a new and next one in which the wonder of His working is made apparent.
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:1,11