Each year, when winter continues to grip Lyme, New Hampshire, I make a small pilgrimage with two old friends to baseball’s spring training. We have been doing it long enough that the ritual itself feels like a season. The sun is warmer, the air softer, and the fields impossibly green.
We sit in modest bleachers and watch young players—some barely out of college—trying to make the roster. A few have large signing bonuses and headlines trailing behind them. Most do not. They shag fly balls with quiet urgency. They run out every grounder. They linger after practice to take one more swing, throw one more bullpen, chase one more dream.
What I love most about spring training is this: every team begins 0–0. Every clubhouse believes it could be its year. Somewhere between the first crack of the bat and the final out in October, one team will raise the trophy at the World Series. But in spring, hope is evenly distributed.
There is something profoundly reassuring about that.
At Crossroads, spring carries the same promise. Our students return from break a little taller, a little steadier. Skills that felt halting in January now come more fluidly. Friendships mend. Confidence blooms. Like those young players, our students are trying out new versions of themselves—more courageous, more disciplined, more kind.
As we watch the spring training games, we note how much effort matters. Attitude matters. Growth matters. The same is true here. Each classroom is its own spring training field. Each rehearsal, lab, and practice is another chance to refine a swing, steady a throw, revise a draft, or take intellectual risks.
And just as every team begins with an equal chance at a pennant, every child at Crossroads begins each season with the opportunity to grow into something new. We do not measure our success in trophies, of course, but in strong minds and kind hearts—habits of excellence that endure long after the season ends.
Spring reminds us that renewal is not accidental; it is cultivated. It asks us to show up again, to believe again, to work again.
May this season at Crossroads be one of fresh starts, steady effort, and the quiet confidence that comes from knowing that, in spring, anything is possible.
