It happened.

I cried today.  In front of my class.

Not just a hidden tear, but REAL tears.  The testimony kind of tears where no one can understand what you're saying.

You see, today during my CTE class, the student council showed a 9/11 tribute video.  And during the video I realized my experience with 9/11 took place EXACTLY where my students were at that moment.  I was in my 7th grade TLC class (TLC is now called CTE).  And I love those kids already so I was thinking about them and then about the video and then I cried about 9/11 for the first time in my life.

So that elicited a discussion, of course.  I told them about my experience with it- how I had just visited NY with my family a few months before that happened, my memories of seeing the towers fall, and of hearing the sound clips of people's last conversations with their family.  We talked about how proud we should be to live in this country because countless people have defended and died for our country so we can have all the freedoms we do.  It was kind of a testimony meeting.

I cried, they cried, we all cried.

Then something sweet happened at the end of the day. After my last class, all the students were walking out and one girl stopped and said, "Ms. Cook, you are like my favorite teacher.  You just make everything so fun and interesting." Nothing could have made me happier than that today.