Dear Students,

I want you to know this was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. Teachers have an incredible gift to simply love other people’s children no matter how much your parents hate us. wink emoticon

Writers are the people living in our communities, and amongst our neighborhoods that possess the gift of words able to captivate and engage us using the power of story to bring forth issues and ideas that matter while igniting our passions and calling us to action. Looking back, I never really had the gift of “teacher”. I guess that’s why I dragged you down the rabbit hole with me as we explored and uncovered together. I want you to know how proud I am of each of you. You walked into a nontraditional classroom confused and resistant for the the first few weeks wondering what happened to English class. I told you it would make sense at the end. It always did. And by the end of the semester, we all wanted just a bit more time together.

That’s the thing though … Your time on earth is limited. We learned last fall that life is simply a gift we each possess a set of carefully crafted keys that unlock the doors we face in our journey.

We learned through the loss of our 3 that we each have the ability to impact one another … to unlock our doors … to do more … to be more.

Before that, we learned that in a single moment in time, we can lose a parent, a mom, someone that is our everything and wonder how we can ever take another step into the unknowns of tomorrow without her.

Without him … Without Dad.

We learned that one minute our classmate can be sitting in class writing a paper and sassing his favorite English teacher laughing as he walks out summoned by Momma Linda to the office … not coming back to class — ever … that in one moment your life can change from life to cancer in an instant.

I guess those moments made me reflect more than I ever realized. 4 years ago, I moved myself and my 4 daughters up here looking for “home”. We found it. Thank you for that. But my takeaway is that happily ever after does indeed exist. If you have the grit it takes to go after it. “

“Home” is what’s inside of you that reflects the people of the “place” you were meant to live for a period of time so you can ultimately find who you really are forming the hope you will have in your happily ever after as your character builds because of the persevere of your “Growing up Iowa” story.

They lived their story so we can live ours. We miss them. We still cry. They live because we continue.

I want you to know that I didn’t quit teaching because of you. I didn’t quit teaching solely because the system itself is broken. I quit because I asked myself this question:

“When you die, what do you want to have lived for?”

I’m not sure of the answer yet, but I’m going to find it.

The truth is that you’re so much more than small town Iowa. Your more than what they say you are. I know this because I’m one of you.

What if you start living for possibility and stop living for yesterday. Take a class you’re scared to take. Don’t check your grades for a semester. Stop worrying about what they say about you. Start singing at lunch. Ask why. Question the system. Question everything. Stop trying to fit into the premade cookie cutter versions of your parents and grandparents and form a new shape that revitalizes the community of your tomorrow. This is your future. Make it a place in which you want to return to raise your families, watch your sons play football, and as Carter C. so eloquently stated watch “the girls of fall” play volleyball. This is YOUR place, YOUR people, YOUR story.

Live your life so that it ends by living on through the legacy found in your place through your people.

Like you, I cried tears I don’t ever want to cry again. The start of our last year together broke me in so many ways. But in my broken, I found living. The end of this school year ends in tears. I have so many unsaid things to say to each one of you. But the power of living your life for living rather than living for dying means that the relationships we built are everlasting. I’ll see you again.

I look forward to that day.
Thank you. Every single one of you.

-Salgado