Rebooting the Beginning of School

This post was supposed to go up on August 25th, welcoming the beginning of school and well...Hurricane Harvey happened.

The rainfall that fell on Saturday is something you can't understand unless you went through it.  The closest I can come is the intensity of rainfall felt like driving through a bad storm that forces you off the road because driving conditions are so treacherous.  Now, imagine that rain is non-stop, with no drop in intensity for a whole night.  The amount of rain turned our street into a literal river.  As I saw the rain creep up to my house, I felt equal parts fear and bewilderment.  This could not be happening.  We live on relatively high ground in League City and our house was about to turn into an ark.

Fortunately, my family and most of my students did not suffer flood damage, but several students got hit hard.  Resuming school today was an incredibly welcoming bit of normalcy, and I imagine most of the students felt the same.  Not teaching for two weeks, with two little boys tired of being cooped up inside for a whole week is not an easy experience.  Seeing neighbors hit hard by the rain and helping gut their homes is an experience I hope to never repeat again.

With school resuming so close to the District Round of All-State Auditions, audition pieces have been shortened to accommodate the lack of preparation time.  Many fall concerts have been canceled, shortened or moved.  Fortunately, everyone is really pulling together locally to be more friendly, kind, and patient with everyone.  When you ask, "how is your family," people know instantly it is about the flood and how well you managed.  The hurricane was a disaster, but the silver lining was a community brought closer together out of mutual need and care for each other.

DWS