Word: Renewal

Sentence:

Sometimes renewal is as simple as giving today a chance.

Passage:

Kids can teach us a lot. One of the biggest lessons is renewal.

I’ve met students from all over the world. Some whose schools were literally blown up by war. Others here in Chicago who had to navigate intense neighborhoods just to arrive safely. And yet, every morning, they showed up. Ready to learn. Ready to try again.

Think about what we ask of them.
Seven classes a day.
A bell every fifty minutes.
Seven different teachers. Seven different sets of rules. Seven different rooms. Seven different communities of thirty peers.

And between each class, they reset.
They don’t carry the last period into the next one.
They don’t demand the day be easier.
They just keep going.

That’s renewal.

As we step into a new year and the familiar season of resolutions, I find myself wondering what it would look like to live each day the way students live each period. Not as a grand reinvention, but as a quiet restart.

What if each day was a clean slate, not because the past didn’t matter, but because it no longer needed to lead the way.

What if we looked at our work, our colleagues, and ourselves with fresh eyes instead of old files in a cabinet. Letting go of yesterday’s mistakes, frustrations, or disappointments. That kind of renewal is hard. It’s a form of forgiveness. And it gets harder as we get older.

Somewhere along the way, we lose our patience for restoration. We forgive kids quickly but hold ourselves and others hostage to their past. Teaching teenagers taught me the power of loving people where they are, not where they were.

In education, renewal is built into the rhythm.
Each year is a chance to begin again.
Each semester is a reset.
Each class period is an opportunity to do better than the last.

What if we borrowed that mindset beyond the school walls. What if each day and each person we encountered was given that same chance.

When the day ends, let it end.
Store it as a memory, not a weight.
And show up tomorrow with new eyes, new ears, and a renewed heart.

Your Turn:

What will renewal look like in how you show up tomorrow?

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