Past ARFF

Student support groups started today. What a joy! Every student has the space to be themselves and share about the things that have touched them deeply in their lives. It is an honor to hear their stories and hold them in confidence.

Today we shared personal memories from childhood and every time I think back on my early years I picture a Saturday morning out in my dad's shop. I'm six years old and my dad has helped me up into a tall stool at his work bench. He has given me an old coffee can full of junk and two empty soup cans. My job is to put the screws in one and washers in the other. My senses are filled with the smell of woodsmoke and lumber, and the sounds of the saw and hammer.

Surely I have other memories I could recount but I always find pleasure in going back and revisiting that scene. I've wondered what causes it to be so vivid in my mind and I think it probably has to do with ARFF. There was lots of achievement. I had a job I was capable of doing and I was learning about tools and hardware and the names of all the sundry items in the can. It was the only close, one on one time with my dad all week. It was fun and it felt free because it was out of the House!

ARFF is such a positive force. Even now, I can recreate those pleasant feelings just in the remembering and the writing.

So if you are reading this and have time to post a comment, please share one of your ARFF-filled memories.