MindSpinner

She’s a vibrant, smart young woman, a natural leader. When we teachers sat around a table in November and brainstormed about how to help some of our struggling students (beyond what we teachers can manage), I suggested that we recruit a handful of especially capable seniors as peer tutors. She was one of three we named, and she was glad to help out. She’s thinking of teaching someday.

She did an especially creative yearbook page for our middle school cheerleaders. She learned how to use Photoshop to turn portions of photos to black and white, while her cheerleaders popped with color. I’ll doublecheck her proof changes on Monday and see how far she got with pages for our next deadline.

She won’t be finishing them.

I learned yesterday that she hydroplaned on Christmas afternoon on rainy roads. Her car wrapped around a tree. She’s still unconscious, and the prognosis is not good. I lay awake late into the night last night, praying. Sometime in the night I dreamed that she had died. I hope my dream means nothing at all. But brain damage is suspected, and her other injuries are extensive. If she recovers, that recovery will take the better part of a year, doctors say.

“Fight,” I whisper into the air. “Fight. If anybody’s got the stuff to be a miracle girl, you have.”

I teach in a very small school with a strong sense of community. The senior class, which I co-sponsor, has fewer than three dozen students. For the most part, they’ve grown up together. This is going to be tough.