To say I have been through a lot recently would be an understatement. In the last nine months, I have lost two very important people in my life. Over the course of my lifetime, there have been many more that I have lost. If there is one thing I have learned from all of the loss, it is that every loss and ever season of grief is different, yet they are all the same.
Sarah Richmond, retired Principal of Pittsburg Intermediate School, passed away on July 20, 2022. She was celebrated as the 500th graduate of Northeast Texas Community College in May 1990. Richmond went on to receive two master’s degrees, one from The University of Texas at Tyler, and one from Texarkana A&M University. She was a staff member of the PISD family for 29 years, beginning in 1992 as a fourth grade teacher. In 1997, Richmond moved to a teacher of the fifth grade, and in August 2004, became the Assistant Principal of Pittsburg Intermediate, a position she held for one year.
Some days, when the dishes refuse to be washed, we don’t fight them. We just let them sit in the sink covered in their own smelly pieces of boiled cabbage or dried up tomato sauce until they can’t stand how sticky and stinky they are, then scrub them down until they scream for mercy.
I entered the giant room with round tables and folders at each chair and checked into the writer’s conference. In this meeting room, the guest speakers would pour out varying topics for the listeners to digest, and I would take lots of notes. It’s great to hang out with other writers, some write children’s books, others novels, some write for newspapers, others write poetry, and some are beginning their journey.
It has long been said that the best things in life are free. That is a concept that most of us can agree with and hold onto when things look bad around us. Often times, when our situation seems dire and grim, what we really need to do is take a close look around and see all of the good in our lives that have the opportunity to outweigh the negative. If we take just a few minutes and run down the proverbial pros and cons list, odds are the pros will win out over the cons.
