Let Your Heart Break to Let Your Heart Heal

It takes courage to let your heart get broken.

I don’t know where this is going today. This is not the post I planned. But it’s the one I need right now.

I am sad. The week has brought very sad news to my school community. First was the terrible loss of a young person I admired so much. His strength and courage to overcome challenges was inspiring. And losing him is a tragic loss for the world.

And then, yesterday, we received the horrific news that another young man, a student I just spoke with the day before, had died. For our city, this is news heard far too often. For our students, it will mean yet another friend and classmate they will grieve. For all of us who knew his story, his strength and courage were inspiring in a different way. Losing him is a tragic loss loss for the world.

Today we will open up the school and let students and staff come together for support, to lean on one another, to cry and begin to heal. And I will allow my heart to feel as broken as it does. Because it feels so bad…because the lives we have lost mattered. And because part of my job is to open my heart to these young people. I can’t help it.

So today, I will put into practice all the things I have talked about over the past 30 days. And if I see you, I really need a hug.