Saying Good-bye

There are many changes taking place in my life right now.  I'm about to start a new adventure that I'm nervous about, and truly, I'm doing for my kids more than anything.  With these changes, I'm required to leave some comforts behind.  Youth Village Academy has been my home for only a year, but I've grown to love the people I work with.  Watching the graduation of my students is such a high point, knowing they've worked so hard to be where they are.  I found it funny that after the graduation at YVA, the president took pictures with the graduates, and the original team that put the school together.  The current Granite School District teachers were not in the pictures.  I'll miss the love and appreciation that I've felt from them.

The really hard good-bye has been Turnabout.  Turnabout has been a part of my life, in some capacity, since I was 18 years old.  My brother was in the program for two years, then my mom became the principal, and later, when I was 22, I started working there.  For 13 years I've taught at that school and I can't begin to describe the feeling of family that I have there.  I will miss this place immensely.  On the last day of school, two former students came into my room to surprise me and brought me a cake.  The inscription had every possible grammatical error - and I loved it.

At the graduation, I was a wreck.  Knowing that I was leaving made things so hard and when each of the students were prompted to take a lei off of them and put it on a teacher, I lost it.  It was the most thoughtful gesture ever, without making it about the teachers.  I couldn't contain myself.  Just after that, unbeknown to me, I was called up on stage to accept a special gift.  The school had the students sign around pictures of me and they framed it.  I was already crying before this, and was not getting better.  They asked me to say a few words, which I did not anticipate.  I cried through it, but I don't think I said anything too weird.  I sure hope not.

Now that I've said my goodbyes and cleaned out my rooms, I'm starting my own new journey outside of my comfort zone.  I begin working at Challenger School on June 17.  While this school was not anything I ever anticipated for myself, with what they can do for my children, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  This will be different from anything I've ever done before.  I'll be teaching 4th grade to gifted and talented students who are bound for ivy league schools.  The expectations are high and I hope I don't crack under the pressure of being so far from what I'm used to.

I'm grateful for the experiences I've had and the growth that has come from these places.