I am just a tiny bit embarrassed to admit how excited I was to raid the table filled with Johnsonville athletics paraphernalia tonight. Let’s just say I didn’t get out the gym without spending $82 on stuff covered in gold and black, which does not include the other t-shirt I have on back order.

Tonight we had Open House, Freshmen Focus, and the great JHS tradition the Booster Club Kick-Off Supper. They all went amazingly well, as has this entire week. I promise you, you can think you love somewhere else, but there truly is nowhere else on this earth like home.

I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from the community on my return home: from former schoolmates whose children I will be teaching, to former students of mama and daddy; to people who I have never seen but have heard of my return and have just stopped by to introduce themselves.

It has been surreal. There aren’t enough words to describe the myriad of emotions I have experienced over the past couple of weeks as JHS has started to spring to life with the return of its students and staff members. I cannot describe what I feel when people come in and pick up the pictures of my parents and remember them so fondly; call them their heroes; and tell you that having you back is like them being in the building once again.

I mean this as no disrespect to my Raider family who so lovingly welcomed me into their world for 12 years, but how I feel reminds me of something a friend of mine recently told me about a new medicine her doctor put her own. She said, “I didn’t know how bad I felt until I realized just how good there was to feel.” I must say I had no idea just how much I love and missed this place until I got to be wholly and fully reimmersed into its culture; a culture that has always been as much a part of me as breathing.

I am so excited about Monday morning. I am so excited to have a new harvest of students to get to know and unravel their personalities. I know there will be days that drive me crazy. There will be days when I want to pull my hair out. There will be days when I probably want to hang some of them up by their toenails, but today I am so excited at the idea of something new and fresh yet old and familiar.

And let me add, this teacher work week has been amazing. Every person has been so kind and welcoming. There is an ease in the room when we meet. Meetings are light and fun and amicable. I am so excited about our new administration. At every turn they have opened their doors to us as teachers; asked us to sit down and share our concerns; contribute our ideas; tell them our goals. They too are overflowing with new ideas and desires to create this actual, working society of education that pushes people and demands the best of them.

Tonight at Freshmen Focus, Jostens Representative Dusty Rhodes said, “there has just always been something special about Johnsonville High School.” When he said that, I had chills; chills at the thought of knowing I had a part of that special. My family helped start it. As I looked at the state championship banners around that gym, I knew I and my schoolmates helped contribute to that special. And now I get the honor of helping continue that special and passing on the traditions of Johnsonville High School to its current students.

Our principal has chosen the motto, “The Tradition Continues.” Yes, I have no doubt that it will continue, but more than that I am a firm believer that Johnsonville High School is on the verge of raising the bar to an even greater tradition. Good things are happening in that building, people. There is lots of newness, more than has been in a long time, but all the newness is excellent and the combination of that with the people who are still there is going to make sure that Johnsonville High School will continue to be the “gold” standard when determining where schools fall on the excellence factor.

But then again, all of us here have always known that, “If you want to be known as the best in the state, you’ve got to strike like a flash to be great.”