A little more than a year ago, I posted about the South Korean ferry sinking. That tragedy immobilized me. I didn't cry, but I raged; I walked around with a sick, rotten feeling sunk deep in my stomach. I'd never lost a student before, and I couldn't fathom losing an entire junior class.
Now there's an empty chair in my classroom.
We all know why it's empty. The sixteen of us -- fifteen of us -- have been in this classroom since August of 2013, when we first came together for 11th Grade Language & Literature. I've loved this class dearly for the last year and a half, despite the bizarre gender ratio: thirteen boys and three girls.
Two girls.
