This is a message of pride and gratitude.
When we started the school year, never in our wildest dreams did we think we would be living these moments of uncertainty. Suddenly, our world was turned upside down and it was at that moment when we all began rising to the occasion.
We got our priorities straight. First, the safety and well-being of our families, followed by the safety and well-being of friends and community.
We are staying home, keeping our distance, wearing our masks in public to protect ourselves and others. Parents are working from home, doing their best to balance work and raising their children, with grandparents and family members reaching out to help.
At school, administrators, teachers, and staff joined forces immediately to make sure children continued learning, growing, and feeling connected and secure.
We are all exhausted and praying for the light at the end of the tunnel. We all want to see our children happy, we want to make sure we give them all we can. We think of the events and things they have missed during the past two months and look for ways to “make it” up to them.
I was feeling and thinking along those lines until I met via Zoom with our graduating class, saw their faces and listened to their words of wisdom. Our young people are resilient, caring, honest, and are developing their own individual and collective voices.
Every one of them mentioned “family, friends and love” as their greatest Conchita gifts. Their priorities are clear. I started thinking of the messages I have received from parents, students, and teachers. I thought of the images I have seen of our children and teachers creating magic in a Zoom Room. Science experiments, book reports, storytelling, dance choreographies, art projects, fitness, music concerts, sports, geography games, singing lessons, prayers… “family, friends and love”.
Our children are coming out of these challenging times, wiser and stronger. We all are.
Parents, teachers, and family members have joined forces to give our children what they truly needed: security, a sense of reality, strength to face adversity, and, as one of my 8th graders put it, “the opportunity to think and feel deeper”.
As I said at the beginning, this is a message of pride and gratitude.
I am proud of my Conchita family: of its generosity, kindness, discipline and passion.
Thank you parents for your support, love, trust and your words of encouragement when we needed them the most.
Thank you teachers, administrators and staff for your dedication, creativity, knowledge and hard work in guiding and mentoring our young.
Thank you students. I am proud of your achievements. I am grateful for the joy, the wonder, the hope, the love of life you bring to us each day.
Congratulations and blessings to all, very especially to our 2020 graduates – The Class of Champions. FAMILY FRIENDS LOVE
Much Love,
Maribel Z. Diaz
