Rebeca Johnston-sowin:  

I haven't been on Classmates in a while since my family members are on FB, and it's a great way for us to all keep up with what's going on in the family. A lot of my classmates are also on FB, and we eventually started our "Edinburg High School, Class of '73" page so that we could stay posted with get-togethers, reunions, plans for parties, etc. We also try to keep on top of which class members we have lost through the years. One thing that we do at the end of every class reunion is hold a brief memorial for our classmates who are no longer with us. We read their names, then pause for a moment of silence. It's a very emotional moment, and it's hard to keep the tears from flowing, but we feel that we owe it to them to recognize that they are still a part of our class and always will be. Unfortunately, the list gets longer and longer. I've had some wonderful experiences on Classmates and on FaceBook, being able to reconnect with many former students. Since I was a teacher at EHS for twelve years, I taught over a thousand students, and it's been great to be back in touch with them, know what they're doing, thank them for being such great students, and congratulate them on their successses in life. I think the two most moving moments I've had on Classmates have been the contact of two of my students from McHi from my counseling days. What's funny is that neither one of them was really my student, officially. The school divided students into counseling groups by last name, trying to keep it as balanced as possible, and it got to be kind of confusing at times. I'm the kind of person that talks to a student in crisis once and then becomes a "surrogate" parent to that child, so I didn't care if the student "belonged" in my part of the alphabet; he was going to be my student until he or I left McHi. Of course, once other counselors realized this, they had NO problem letting go of their students who preferred to go see me. Yeah, except that they didn't offer to pick up my paperwork for me in exchange. Oh well, fortunately, I can multi-task, so I always got everything done on time and still made time for my students. Having a young foreign exchange student brought to my office by her counselor because she was crying so hard and he felt that she needed to talk to a woman ended up being one of my most memorable moments at McHi. What could I do for a child who could barely speak English, and I had zero knowledge of her language? I went through every "normal" step of talking to the host parent (distant), host "sister" (too busy), the exchange company (out for money only; your problem now), and then just prayed. My heart was breaking for this child who was sobbing in my office for four hours. Yeah, that was half a day that I was spending on somebody else's student instead of doing my own work, but I'm not a machine. I couldn't let that child leave my office without knowing that we had a plan. After examining all of the possiblities of things she could get involved in without worrying about language barriers, the "lightbulb" went off and I called the girls' soccer coach. It was the first year of girls' soccer at McHi, and he was pretty open to taking anybody. Having had English-speaking male students who played on teams where all the guys spoke Spanish, I knew language wasn't an issue in soccer, so I sent her to him, he put her on the j.v. team, she made friends, and had a successful year. She made a beautiful Christmas card for me in her native language (I still have it), and the following year, I received a package from this far-away country. In it was candy from her country (I always had a candy dish on my desk) a hand-made Christmas card in her native language and English, and a note of thanks. Yes, I cried. I see her name on my guest list and I have written to her, but she has not written me back. I will keep trying because I know she is very shy, but it has meant the world to me to know that she remembers me. My other great experience on Classmates has been my reconnecting with one of my "McHi Babies". There was one year at McHi when all hell broke loose and the demons descended upon the school. We had tragedy after tragedy, and there was a group of freshman football players who lost a friend in football and were shattered beyond belief. I knew the boy and his family, and I was used to seeing him and his friends as they roller-bladed around the neighborhood when they were in junior high, so I knew these kids were really, really close. The freshman coach, for some reason, decided that I would be the counselor who would watch over these kids. He was very concerned that they were falling apart and wanted to make sure that someone was looking out for them. Again, I didn't look at last names and think, "Oh, well, that's not my kid." I just grabbed the list he gave me and gathered up the kids on the list. My office became a refuge for them, a place where they could cry, share stories, call the hospital (the accident was horrible and eventually fatal, but the boy was in the hospital for 18 months), pray (I kept a Bible in my desk drawer), and just cling to each other emotionally. They became MY babies, and God help the person who messed with my babies! During their junior year in h.s., I suffered the second of three back injuries, and after three months of working while walking with one leg on tip-toe, the doctor told me he was not allowing me to return to work. Talk about a Valium moment! I was hysterical; "I can't leave! I'm a single parent! My babies need me!" He pointed out a line to me and showed me the box that he had to check: "Back to work" or "Not able to work" and signed the "not able to work". My babies!!! Well, I've learned that sometimes God needs to get us out of the way so HE can work on our "babies". I am in touch with one of my "babies" (LOL! I think he's 29) on Classmates, and I have cried when I've read his letters. He is a born-again Christian, is making a very successful career of the military as is one of my other babies, and he has assured me that the others are all doing very well, too. When I read the first letter he wrote to me, I got on my knees with tears flowing down my face and thanked God for taking care of my "babies" for me. I remembered the many, many nights after busy days of working, then running kids around to all of their activities, getting dinner and homework done, and then dropping to my knees with my Bible as I leaned on the bed and let the tears fall that I had held in all day for these kids. I asked God to watch over them and take care of them, especially after I was pulled out of work. For ten years, I never stopped praying for them, and the letter I g...Expand for more