Change Can Be Sweet

Lori Sabo

June 15, 2018

Issue:

#518

We were on our way to the grocery store when my son, who was five at the time, yelled, "To! To!" Initial panic calmed when my brain registered that we don’t yell that in an emergency, so I inquired, “What?” He had recognized the word to on a sign that said Photos to Go. It was the day he became a reader, and we’ve felt a special affection for the local business ever since.

That was in the 1990s, and we’d often pop into Photos to Go to drop off film and say hello to Chung Kim, the owner. For 15 years, Mr. Kim carefully processed and preserved innumerable faces, places, and memories for our community.

Then digital photography was born. As its popularity increased, Mr. Kim’s business dwindled to nearly nothing. Then one day, the monstrous processing equipment was gone and the doors were closed. It felt profoundly sad.

A couple of months later, a shiny new Baskin-Robbins ice cream store took its place. And behind the counter was Mr. Kim! Instead of preserving memories, he has spent the past nine years being part of making them, serving up sweet treats, rain or shine.

I can’t help but admire Mr. Kim and think about what we can learn from his example. The end of the school year is the perfect time to be brutally honest about what we are doing. Some things can be refined and tweaked so they go from good to great. Some things may need to be scrapped altogether. What parts of our repertoire once served us and our students well but are now past their prime? If we start from scratch and try something completely different, like Mr. Kim did, our results may be just as sweet.