Today was my last day with my 1st grade class with them as 1st graders…next time I see them they’ll be 2nd graders. And as we hurried through Oh the Thinks you can Think!* By Dr. Suess (one of my favorites) it started going through my mind. The ending of things. As we walked to the buses I walked a moment with each child holding their hand and telling them that I was glad I was their teacher and I was proud of them, thanking them for cards and fun memories. And giving parting hugs. Towards the end some of the kids gathered around me, running into my arms for their hug, telling me in broken English that they loved me and “bye!”. And as they clung to my hand or held me in their hug or ran to me it caught me by surprise: this love I have for them. This intense warmth of love. Tears were in my eyes. And as one little boy pulled me down to his level he told me “I love you ….AUNTY” (which is huge. I’ve always been mam here never aunty) and as he said it I knew he had put emotion and love behind it as this huge smile spread over his face. And giving my cheek a kiss he ran off to the bus with me calling out after him “I love you!” as tears began to threaten to fall. I held it together to give my final hugs and get my kisses but as I walked back to the classroom to get my books I had tears streaming down my face. I sat down and looked at the empty classroom and thought “how can I leave?”. I got myself back under control long enough to walk back to my house where I promptly broke down again. I have two more months till I come home. Two months.
My heart is gripped with the finality of it. That I can never again go into Class 1B and see those kids. The finality of the fact that I leave in 9 weeks. How can I leave? How do you say goodbye? How is it Already half way through March?! How do you leave these kids that love you and you love in return?
*I’ve been reading them the story and making them colour as we go along, of course I didn’t show them the pictures till today. To get them to be creative. It starts easy: draw some birds, something yellow, blue, red and pink but then they have to think up a “zong”, a “guff”, a “snuv”, “The Vipper of Vip” what Na-nup looks like and Da-dake! For kids that can’t draw anything without copying a picture it was intense~but wonderful and fun. The end results were amazing!
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