Jordan's Most Excellent Day

At some point Tuesday morning, I received a phone call from Jordan’s industrial technology teacher. Ms. Janik wanted to share the good news that Jordan would be receiving a Unified Arts Award at the sixth grade awards assembly on Thursday morning, and would we be available to attend.

We chatted briefly, and Ms. Janik’s words of praise could not have been kinder: Jordan was a wonderful girl to have in class, always happy, helpful and kind to her fellow students. Ms. Janik was especially pleased with the relationship Jordan developed with Maddie, a special needs student who she partnered with during class. The only condition was the award was a surprise, and to please keep the news a secret.

I shared the great news with Jim and promptly slid back into a coma, sleeping the remainder of Tuesday. Feeling no better on Wednesday, I again woke up long enough to get Jordan and Jamie off to school, Jim off to physical therapy, and drag myself back to bed. I needed to be well just long enough on Thursday morning to attend Jordan’s assembly.

We arrived at Drauden Point Middle School promptly at 10:00 a.m. for the 10:15 assembly. As the three sixth grade classes filed into the gymnasium and into the bleachers, their eyes scanned the six rows of folding chairs for familiar faces. Jordan walked in behind us and spotted Jim immediately. “What are you doing here?” she asked with an ear-to-ear grin.

Principal Flynn greeted the enthusiastic sixth grade class and parents, reminding the students how it seemed like only yesterday when they were the new students, roughly six inches shorter, fumbling with their combination locks on their lockers and getting lost during passing periods.

In the one-hour assembly, students were recognized for Perfect Attendance, Unified Arts, Athletics, Honor and High Honor Roll, and Student Citizenship and Panther Pride Awards. I could barely see Jordan’s face when her name was called for the Unified Arts Award in Industrial Technology, but you could have knocked her over with a feather.

Smiling broadly and blushing, she walked carefully down the bleachers and accepted her certificate of appreciation with pride, the sound of her classmates’ applause filling the air. Jordan waved at both of us before climbing back up to her seat to receive hugs from her friends.

Jim and I listened with shared pride as her fellow classmates’ names were called, many of them familiar to us from her grammar school years. There were many shared laughs and congratulations in the parent section, and even a few tears, knowing that our children’s first year of middle school was almost over. Where in the world did the time go?

Jim asked the same question as we returned home and I fell onto the bed, as exhausted as if I had sprinted home the three-mile drive with a fifty-pound backpack. He had scheduled an appointment with my doctor for Friday morning, concerned that I was showing no signs of getting better.

I awoke before Jordan came home to congratulate her again and ask about her day, and she shared that it was one of the best school days ever. Jamie came home a half hour later and shared in his sister’s excitement, and then they both went off to the kitchen to finish their homework together.

And I returned to the sick bay, and slipped into a dreamless sleep.