Reason 55: "Your room was so dark"

100 Reasons I'm Retiring

This next reason could, according to a school friend, have been a reason to stay. But I’m looking at it from the perspective of a “job well done.”

In January, I was out for a week with COVID. When I returned, a student who is not even a member of my class stopped me in the hallway.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Nyla said. “Your room was dark and sad without you in it.”

“Well,” I said, “I missed everyone at school.”

She paused another moment, her arms crossed. “The thing is, Dr. Cobourn,” she went on, “your room is always so full of light and love.”

Wow.

When I arrived at West Catholic in 2017, it was a dark and dreary little room, sort of a catch-all for collected food boxes, textbooks, and metal bookcases. I spent weeks getting rid of items, moving things around, and convincing our custodian to move tow metal cabinets. The end result is, I think, a room full of light and love.

And I will miss it. But, I’ve done at West what I set out to do. I made a safe space for my English as a Second Language students amid the dizziness of a long school day. I’ve created for them a space where they can speak in Spanish, play a few hands of Uno, and always find someone willing to help them.

And it’s nice that even students like Nyla, who are not ESL, know what goes on in Room 108.

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Many of my students who have graduated continue to contact me and let me in on slices of their lives. As I leave West, I know that I have made a difference in their lives. What about you? Where have you been able to make a difference? Where would you like to make a difference?