New adventures bring hope and excitement for the future to our students every day, but these trails are littered with barriers and obstacles for many of them along this path. It is interesting when you reach that point in your career when those you have worked with as children start coming to talk to you about their children’s future adventures. I have had parents of students who have come to speak to me about this year’s Washington, D.C. trip and want their child to have the experience that they were able to enjoy during their 8th grade year. Our recent experiences, have in some cases, robbed our youth of some of those memories and it seems that these continue to present themselves. Students have lost many traditions of the regular sixth grade trip, the prom and graduation ceremonies, as well as the eighth grade Washington, D.C. trip over the past few years. These are hopes for the future that those students will not be able to gain back and count as experiences from their school years.
It has been two years since the Middle School has been able to make the trip from Greenville to the Nation’s Capital. In March 2020, we were told that things were going to change and we watched as time for the Washington, D.C. trip approached and opportunities slipped away for this trip to become a reality. The students, parents and staff alike were saddened at the news that the trip was off and money would be refunded. This was the first of many disappointments for the year.