As the students and teachers headed back to school last week, I was waxing nostalgic, just a little bit mind you.

As I begin my tenth year since retiring, I often think about my previous life teaching music.

My first day of retirement in 2015, I attended a function called “To Hell with the Bell” with a group of former teachers, some of whom had been retired for many years.

I wasn’t overly comfortable being at that meeting because I actually enjoyed my career and felt that it made me seem ungrateful for the opportunities I had had for the previous 31 years.

Much like a house is not a home unless a family is in it, schools are just brick and mortar every weekend, and for two months each summer.

But once the administration, staff, and especially the students return as they did last week, a school comes to life and becomes a living, breathing entity.

Schools are complex places with several layers to their operation.

Administrators, which come and go like kidney stones, determine the morale of a school. The staff, which is typically much more stable, establishes the culture of the building. But the most important layer is the students that provide the life, excitement, and our reason for being there.

As a staff member, I loved being a part of it.

But as much as I loved my career, I must come clean.

I wasn’t a high-achieving academic as a student and I didn’t like that aspect of school, but I sure loved the intramurals, bands I played in, being part of the wrestling team, the camera club, playing ping pong on the........

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