The Magic of Schroon

I savored every second of this year's rainy summer with my preschooler. I knew it was my last one without the outside influence of other kids and other families. I loved every second with him, even the hard ones because I knew going to school was going to be hard. It's always hard when you're a little different, right?

Up until September, Lincoln was mostly untainted by the judgement of others. He was safe with us. We protected our sweet, strong, kind boy for four years. Every interaction was monitored, every situation handled by those who knew him best. We had the talks, gave the speeches, read the books, reached out to other parents in our shoes, cut people out of our circle to protect him, then grew our circle to support him, and prepared ourselves for hard. We prepared ourselves for the worst. We prepared ourselves for disappointment. September arrived with more tears than I can count- from all of us (but mostly me if I'm honest). And what I found was that we were unprepared.

We were unprepared for the good. The magic. The beauty. The pure joy of watching someone we love and worry about take on the world with confidence and THRIVE doing it. We didn't prepare for the joy of seeing an entire community fall in love with our kid because they see his worth and value and spunk and charm and awesomeness! We didn't prepare for the goodness; the goodness in our school, our students, our teachers, our teaching aides and assistants (what would we even do without Mrs. Rose!?), our therapists, our administrators, our administrative assistants, our custodians, our transportation department, our cafeteria staff, our families, and our friends. Schroon Lake Central School is truly special.

I'm so grateful for every single person on this journey with us and will never again underestimate the good in this world. I know there will come a day when we have to face the bad in this world but we struck gold planting our roots in a community built on kindness, because when the bad hits, Lincoln has a community of people standing up for him, looking out for him, and rooting for him- with his big brother and his buddies being the first in line. He's taught us way more than we ever could have imagined and if it weren't for him, we would have missed out on so much good. I wouldn't change a thing about him, but we are going to keep trying to change the world for him and we hope our community will keep trying too, starting with an accessible playground.

The current SLCS playground is inaccessible to Lincoln, other kids with mobility devices, and those with physical limitations and AIM is hoping to make a difference.