Congrats, Class of 2025!

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April showers bring May flowers. 

May. It's a month referred to as the sunshine after the April showers. For me, a high school educator, it's the month I begin counting down until summer. Excitement flows through my blood, electricity filling my veins. Until I realize... the end of May is when I also say farewell to my precious senior students. 

These students started high school with social distancing, face masks, walking in one direction, and hand sanitizer—lots of hand sanitizer. They were resilient, fighting through the unknown, with a teacher filled with the same worry and dread, who had stayed a whole year at home, starting her career, with a baby, wondering if she was going to be good enough for her students.

We marched on, my students and I. With each year passing, they grew a little taller, and I grew a little wiser. These seniors saw me at my worst and at my best. They saw me handle the rockiness of a marriage while pursuing my own interests. They saw me lose my cool and own up to my mistakes. These seniors were my velcro students, and grew into faces I eagerly looked forward to seeing each day.

To the Class of 2025, congratulations! You were triumphant, successful, and resilient during times of great challenges. Continue to chase the stars, youngins'. You are the future I am betting all my chips on. Define your steps like you did in high school, with excellence and devotion  to your future goals. Don't ever look back, don't ever give up, and know that the adults you're leaving in this chapter will continue to cheer you on into the next. 

To my students, Mrs.Montoya's class of 2025, please know how proud I am of you. You young men and women have grown and blossomed into beautiful flowers of different colors, and I'm eager to see what you accomplish next. When I cried to y'all, you all said to stop, and everything will be okay --- that you all will still be around. 

But you don't realize how different it'll be now. 

I won't see you guys every day. I won't have you come into my room during passing periods to give me updates on your lives. I won't have you always swarming my desk and drawing on my board. I'll continue my day-to-day on campus while you all stretch your wings and fly into the next chapter of your life. I'll be here cheering you on, always and forever.

Once a Raven, always a Raven. 
Congratulations, Class of 2025! <3

-Mo

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