This year many of my friends turned 40, and due to the hectic schedules we all have, not all of us were able to make it to each other’s birthday celebrations. So, on Saturday night, I hosted a big barbecue at my house for a number of us.  Four of my closest friends, and their significant others, attended and we had a great time reminiscing about our childhood and school stories.  Three of us had attended school together from Kindergarten to Grade 12 and one of the others was my roommate during university.  At the end of the night, my good friend Skye Cloutier, who teaches at Ecole Corinthia Park, and her boyfriend Mitch thanked me for hosting the party and asked some questions about my friends.  Skye commented that each of them seemed quite different and she wondered how we were all friends.  I reflected on that question and recognized that from the outside, we would look very different.  At our celebration that night we had an engineer, a welder, a foreman, and a teacher.  Clearly between the four of us, we have many different interests and passtimes, however, there is one thing that has held us all together for 35 years, friendship.  Strong friendships surpass the changes that occur in our lives and the experiences we have with our friends, in school and throughout life, help to shape us into who we are.  Those bonds go beyond work or interests and it is comforting to know that no matter what happens in life, you will always have your good friends.

At East Elementary, your child is building those life-long friendships each day.  Some of the students may one day become doctors, nurses, carpenters, mechanics, or any number of things yet they will always have those friendships that they create in our school.  Have a wonderful week and enjoy the Mid-Term Break!

Mr. Chomlak