So...

I've heard it said that all of your activities and relationships can be put into two groups. The first one uses up part of your life, your energy. It's the stuff that you do because you have to, the people you feel obligated to be around, the stuff that leaves you tired and frustrated after you're done. You all are in the other group.

The only phone call home I ever made as a teacher was to tell a father how happy I was that his kid was in my first period class. Y'all were literally the reason I woke up in the morning. 

From the time I met you as little ninth graders I saw you all as students, but also as friends. I know as a teacher you're supposed to keep a detached distance from students, but it was just too damn hard with students as good as you. You came in as freshmen with interests, with ideas, with goals, with a real desire to learn, not just to do work. And while we may not have done things the way we were supposed to, I hope you all left my class a little bit smarter than when you came in. 

So now we move on to the next chapter. Some of you will stay here and some of you will go away. Some will come back and some never will. Some of you will keep in touch and some of you won't, and that's okay and it's not something you should ever feel guilty about; it's up to you to write your own story. I know you've all sat through me talking plenty of time, so here's the last advice I'll give you: don't be afraid. 

• Don't be afraid to ask, "Why do we do it this way?" or "Why do we think this way?" Question everything.

• Don't be afraid to stick out. Do you, even if it's unpopular. 

• Don't be afraid to fail. If you do, try again. 

• Don't be afraid to step out on your own. It's easier to stay in a bad situation that's known than to face the unknown. But bad will always be bad. 

• Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice. Whatever you're facing, someone else has been there before. 

• Don't be afraid to be vulnerable. Don't rely on timelines and feeds to maintain relationships and images. Have at least one person who knows you, the real you, and that you talk to on a regular basis on the phone or FaceTime or, better yet, in person. 

Thank y'all for letting me in. Thanks for letting me be a part of your lives, and for being part of mine. When I saw Black Panther and Everett Ross did the Wakanda salute I know how he felt. There's a trope in literature of the "white savior," coming to free the brown people from the burden of their brownness. I met lots of kids in college who were gonna be teachers with that mentality. I got asked a lot if I was scared coming to Carver, and every time I said yes: that I was scared that I wasn't good enough of a teacher for kids as smart as you. You let me come alongside as a consultant, not a savior, and you let me say things and do things that I couldn't have gotten away with elsewhere and I know that I learned things and I hope you did too.

EC FOREVER.

DG