Hot Coffee

The raw moments in my life often lead to life reflections and can overlap with my career.
Today my son was born into this world. Today my family went from three to four. Today... added another reason to keep going, to keep pushing through this tough life, and to survive.

He was born around 2 a.m. and by the time the three of us were taken to recovery to rest at 4:45 a.m., I'd been up for nearly 24 hours. When the nurse came in to check on Sailor and Rebecca at 6:30 a.m., I awakened and was a bit groggy to say the least. Minutes later, I realized that I wasn't going back to sleep any time soon. So I decided to go down the hall to grab a nice hot cup of coffee to get the day going with the newest addition to the Frascone "wolf pack". 

As I was walking back towards our room, sipping my Kaiser brewed coffee, this overwhelming sense of nostalgia came over me. New life! Such a miracle it was to witness and be connected to! Then, I walked into our dimly lit room to find my wife peacefully at rest and Sailor swaddled up like a burrito. The sun creeping in through the hospital window shined light on my son’s olive skin and a clear view of the eastern foothills set the perfect backdrop for a novelty experience. 

Our nurse was next to Sailor charting vital signs and grinned at me with a look of assurance on her face. Just then, I decided to share this great sense of nostalgia and deep reflection with her. "This must be the most wonderful job on earth. Seeing new life every day and truly being apart of it. Thousands of promising and impactful lives passing through these halls over the years, wow!” I expressively stated. Staring back at me with a fairly neutral look she said, "Ok... umm... Dad, lets watch our hot coffee. You’re getting a little too close to the baby with your cup. Take a step back please. Thank you.” Then, she scurried out of the room in a hurry to tend to the next new born, and the next overly emotional, nostalgic father with no commonsense...
              
Don't feel too bad for me. She was doing her job. At the end of the day her number one priority was to look out for the safety of my son, even if that meant putting his own father in check with a gentle reminder about infant safety. 

Those of us working in education have a similar task at hand. Our number one priority is to do what's best for our students each and every day. We've made that task our livelihood and to that end alone, our student's needs come before all-else...