We survived another Homecoming and it was a good one. In schools now days, Homecoming refers to a week long series of activities and not just a football game/bonfire/dance and possibly a parade if you live in a small town. At WCS, Homecoming week is marked by a different schedule and daily assemblies which pit classes against each other in competitions. It's great fun culminated by the big football game which we won and crowning of the senior royalty, this year being Queen Christina and King Rashard, two of my favorite kids ever! Only fifty-one weeks to plan for next year's celebration!
There is always a unique theme for the kids to wear costumes depending on the day and their grade level. This year we had decades day, holidays day, character day, favorite team/sport day, and of course, blue and gold Friday! Our dressing up goes all the way down to the littlest one. I was upbraided by a tiny girl, in the sweetest possible way. I asked who she was and she said Belle. I asked, "From Frozen?" With four year old incredulity, I was admonished, "NO! Beauty And The Beast!" I'll never learn! Perhaps the greatest reaction came with the appearance of the Dr.Pepper Guy from the college football playoff ads who in actuality was our own WCS Head of School, Mike White! (Rumor has it even his sophomore daughter Madison was fooled!) But all good things come to an end and inevitably, so did Homecoming 2017. Like I mentioned, we'll do it again next year, Lord willing!
This is the following Sunday so we are five days back into our normal routine of schedules and school uniforms. I actually like Homecoming as a teacher and don't find it distracting. I simply treat it like any other week, which in reality, it isn't. One thing I find interesting as I reminisce is the different approaches our kids take to dressing up for the annual rite of passage. Some plan like it's a wedding for just the right outfit, almost like they're going to the prom or a wedding. I'm convinced moms are increasingly involved in the process! Some coordinate with a group of friends- some of our teachers do as well, especially our science and fine arts departments. Some do the bare minimum so they don't have to wear their school uniform and some do indeed wear their school uniform. To each their own, even as teens and barely teens.
At times, I have asked my students a question along the line of, if you could be somebody else, who would you pick and why? Homecoming gives a small taste of taking on another identification even if only for eight class periods. This afternoon, as I walked into my fitness club to swim, I was met by the receptionist, Roxana Castillo, one of my very favorite former basketball players. I was wearing scrub pants and an Eddie Bauer jacket (THANKS, DAVE AND SALLY!) and when she saw me, Roxana exclaimed, 'Coach Hawley, you look like a doctor!' Well, I've never wanted to be a doctor but I don't mind being mistaken for one! Roxana even said it might help my dating life! In the end, I just am who I am, at least physically. But, there is great news spiritually! In Jesus, I can be brand new! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that,
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
Like the kids during Homecoming, we can choose who to be, except this time, it's eternal! We won't change day to day or on a whim. Who we are, if we choose to be, is HIS! Paul even gives instructions, telling us we put on Christ in baptism ((Galatians 3:27) and that we should clothe ourselves with Jesus, in Romans 13:14. That's the kind of dress protocol we can all live with, forever. No waiting til next year. No pretending to be a super hero or a ballerina...... or even a doctor. The role of the Good Physician has already been taken, and praise God that it has been.
Applicable quote of the day:
No comments:
Post a Comment