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On Monday, I welled up in the middle of my speech during the Kindergarten graduation; I was overcome by emotion at the sight of the children that I had first met three years ago when they were in Nursery – they were masked up, and we were all keeping a social distance of one meter. I would have loved for you to have been at the Maternelle Building on Monday and to have seen how wonderful they were on stage.

More than 10 years ago, I was living a relatively carefree life in Shanghai. During the hot, humid months of fall, I filled my lungs with the scent of street food wafting from the carts dotted around the old town. Andria sat behind me on my knockoff electric Vespa, and we zipped, helmet-free, around the Former French Concession, pinching ourselves at our good luck and relishing our adventurous lives.

This evening an annual tradition is taking place–we are hosting a reception to welcome the parents who will be joining our community in September. Our Director of Admissions Mireille Desalm and I are looking forward to seeing them again–we already met every new child and parent as part of the admissions process–and to giving them a taster of our legendary social gatherings on the rooftop of the Maternelle Building.

Every school tells its own story. We all talk about it – kids, parents, colleagues, and even people who have a limited view from the outside. All of these narratives combine to form the story of The École. I hear that story just as often as I contribute to writing it, and I add to it just as much as it informs my decisions.

After a record number of reactions and responses to my letter last week, I intend to keep things a little lighter today! For example, I plan to talk about the trip to France I am about to embark on (I am literally on the plane as you read this). My destination is Reims, the unofficial capital of the Champagne growing region. And although I’m headed there for the annual MLF Congress for heads of French schools throughout the world, I expect I’ll be holding a glass of bubbly in all the photos!