Last week of school

As you already know, I showed up at work on Monday grumpy, frustrated and generally upset. Then I remembered that I love my job. It was kind of a bittersweet thing to remember, since part of my frustration was that my job was going to be ending this week, but my kids have been really sweet this the last few days. Almost enough to bring a tear to my eye just thinking about it. Luckily, I'm a man... and there's no one in my room right now to question my statements. Ehem. Football. The female anatomy. Miscellaneous man stuff. OK, much better. Now where'd that tissue go?

All joking aside, I'm really going to miss these guys. Obviously, the 8th graders and students who won't be back next year most of all, but even the ones that I will be seeing again in September. It's amazing how important they've become to me over just 3 months.

At some point on Monday, while I was busy being grumpy, frustrated and generally upset, the sixth grade class made thank you cards to give to their favorite teachers. I got three. My jaw dropped when the first student ran through the door at 3 o'clock, yelled "Kenyatte! I made you a card!", sprinted across the portable waving a piece of purple construction paper at me, threw her arms around my waist, smiled giddily and presented me with the card. I stood there stunned as the grouch inside me melted away and an unwilling smile spread from one ear to the other.

Somehow, that was just the beginning. Yearbooks were distributed on Tuesday and I couldn't help but smile when 3 of my students nearly killed each other in a mad dash to see who would get me to sign their yearbook first. Then the rest of the school came and my arm almost went numb from over yearbook signification. I've never felt so appreciated in my whole life.

Yesterday was the fifth grade graduation. The major emotions associated with this event were pride and joy as, for the most part, I'll be seeing all these kids next year. On top of those, was eager anticipation, as I work mostly with the middle school students and will, in fact, get to know most of these kids better next year than I did this year, which I'm looking forward to. Today's the big one though. Today's the 8th grade graduation. The going away graduation. The goodbye forever graduation. There's at least a 50% chance that I'll be brought to tears. I never thought people could have such an emotional impact on me in just three months, but I'm already looking back on these 3 months as one of the happiest periods in my life and I'm really going to miss these kids.

I love my job. For the next 2 1/2 months, I'll be missing my job and looking forward to September. To a class of new first graders, a class of new 6th graders and 9 months as good as these three.