minimal updates & some thoughts on middle schoolers

It's hard to believe my awareness of this journey started just about 2 months ago! What a wild ride. The good news, I suppose, is there hasn't been much additional to update on. But here's the latest:

• Surgery recovery continues to progress. I'm into the swing of all my therapies now and will continue those through early July.
• I was able to make the trip out to Boston for graduation a couple weeks back with Joy (and Josh joined us for a couple days) and it was such a wonderful gift to get to see and celebrate with the cohort that I've spent the last two years journeying through studies and life with.
• I've started back at TomTod a couple half-days per weeks (plus some remote work from home) and will add some more hours once therapies wrap up, with the intention of being back full-time around mid-August.

I'm working on my thoughts on recovery, but they're still very much under construction. But I wanted to share some words that I wrote a month ago and had the chance to share at TomTod's annual fundraiser, which was May 9th, just shy of one month after the surgery. Not only were these my reflections at that time, but I've found myself returning to them often since, wondering if I'm living up to the challenge of middle schooler-esque living as life has settled down somewhat (even while far from "normal"). So here it is, unedited:

"Middle schoolers are amazing, right?! I hope you’ve been as inspired as I have been tonight! I find their enthusiasm, perspective, and imagination deeply compelling. 

For the last 12 years, we’ve been committed at TomTod to empowering middle schoolers and to learning and exploring alongside them. We think middle schoolers have as much, if not more to give us than we have to give to them. The intersection of wise, thoughtful, experienced adults and passionate, imaginative, empathetic middle schoolers can make magic happen in our communities!

I’m relying on my notes a bit more tonight than I normally would…As many of you know, the last five weeks have been a bit of a wild ride for me. On April 1st, I showed up at the office for what I thought would be a normal Monday with this incredible team that you’ve had the opportunity to hear from throughout the night. At the end of a meeting that morning I had a seizure, was rushed to the ER, and several CT scans and an MRI later, we discovered I had a brain tumor a bit bigger than a golf ball in the upper part of my parietal lobe. 9 days later (1 month ago tomorrow), I had a 7+ hour craniotomy, during which they were able to remove over 90% of the tumor. The last month has been a whirlwind of in-patient and out-patient rehab, doctor appointments, and recovery. The great news is that, between the surgery and the biopsy results, my horizon looks a lot longer than it did a month ago, and I look forward to rejoining this important work in the coming months as I complete out-patient rehab and post-surgery recovery.

As you might imagine, I’ve had a lot of time in these five weeks to reflect. To reflect on life, on what’s held in “today” and what the possibility of “tomorrow” may or may not mean (that’s where our name, TomTod Ideas, comes from, by the way - “tomorrow’s ideas today”), and to reflect on the attributes that I want to define my todays and tomorrows, particularly when, early on, it seemed like my tomorrows might be much limited than I had previously imagined.

And, maybe not a surprise here, but it’s the remarkable character qualities of middle schoolers that I have found reignited in myself and repeatedly drawn back to as I reflected.

When I think of middle schoolers, I think of the wonder they have for life and the world around them. Of an open-mindedness to explore possibility, to consider what could be, and a willingness to lean into co-creating it. I’ve experienced this attribute in new ways over the last month as I’ve re-discovered the wonder of each moment of a day, of all that those moments hold, and of the responsibility and opportunity found in each one.

Middle schoolers, we need your wonder if we are to succeed at seeing the possibility that’s within our communities. We need your sense of optimism and “what if”, your willingness to squint something new into reality. Don’t let us steal your wonder with our limited concept of pragmatism or our adult-y preference for the status quo. Keep dreaming and keep inviting us into wondering with you.

When I think of middle schoolers, I think of the passion they have for what they care about. Middle schoolers don’t tend to do things halfway and we all could learn from that. In the last month, I’ve found that what I most care about is where I want to focus my energy and attention, rather than distribute it across as many things as possible.

Middle schoolers, we need you to keep showing us what passion looks like. If we’re going to overcome the challenges our communities face and lean into the opportunities our communities possess, we’re going to have to make tough choices about where we spend our time and energy, and we need your passionate pursuits to inspire us toward dedication and expending our energy in worthwhile ways.

When I think of middle schoolers, I think of caring, empathetic eyes for the world around them. We’ve all seen this demonstrated on repeat tonight, of the thoughtful, intentional care that these students have demonstrated so clearly to us. And there is story after story outside of tonight…we could have filled every seat in this room with students we’ve worked with in the past year that inspire our team. Students like Alex who presented at Akron Public School’s Board of Education just this past Monday about their Changemaker Challenge project focused on the effects of foster care on community and homelessness. I think about Red, a student at Canton City School’s Fairmount Learning Center, who wants to help his peers navigate the challenges of phones and sleep for healthier lives and has some ingenious ideas about how to make it happen. I think about multiple groups of middle schoolers from Barberton, Lake, Plain, and North Canton who have developed exciting ideas to make their communities more equitable, supportive, and accessible.

Middle schoolers, we need you to keep demonstrating to us what care for the common good looks like, to remind us to lean into our better selves that sees the possibility in those around us, particularly those that are different than ourselves. We need your empathetic eyes to guide our vision toward supporting those who have been marginalized. We need you to keep inspiring us forward toward a more caring community.

In the last month, yes, I might have a new hole in my head. But it’s been filled with so much goodness and wonder for life, filled with passion for what’s most worth caring about that surrounds me, and filled with an empathy for the challenges others face and a desire to walk in support of them in the same way that so many have done in such meaningful ways for me.

In short, I feel like a middle schooler all over again and in all the best ways possible. We need more of this middle school energy and opportunity in our communities. Your support tonight help makes that happen. A generous pledge or gift or joining our community of sustaining donors unlocks middle schooler magic in our community. Please join me declaring through our generosity that middle schoolers matter."