Schoolcraft senior girls were feted at a beautiful and tasty brunch by the Ladies Library Association in May at their historic library building in Schoolcraft. The speaker was Jeanne Hess, head volleyball coach and chair of the physical education department at Kalamazoo College who inspired the students to find joy in being grateful.
“I am grateful for my students, because if there were no students, there would be no teachers,” Hess joked. She was serious about making sense of the puzzle of life. She used the analogy of four corners of a stool as anchors. “Ask yourself what they are: family, learning, service, your calling in this world. It’s OK to change these as you go forward as I was going to be a doctor when I went away to college at the University of Michigan.
“Your life gets richer and bigger after graduation with more things connecting the corners,” she told them. “Take time to reflect on the corners as you need to leave the world a better place than you found it. Then joy and gratitude are inevitable.”