Another Last Day

Tomorrow is the senior's last day.  Again.  I've been through this 16 times now.  16.  Perspective:  That's as long as my son has been alive.

Every year it's a countdown to the end of the year, which seems pretty counter-intuitive.  Wishing our lives away day-by-day; but I really don't wish the days away.  I would love to freeze the good moments to revisit later.  What I love about teaching is that the best days are not always the most productive days.   We learn about each other even when we aren't trying so hard.

Yes, it's beautiful symbiosis when we all learn something new and spend time together questioning and exploring ideas.  I love that.  I love the spark of recognition or inspiration or even anger at an idea which stews in our minds.  But sometimes, it's just the present ... and we just "are".  Today in Debate, we finished watching The Breakfast Club (because there are only eight of us, and some of them had never seen John Hughes channeling high school) and ate waffles.  I'm not talking frozen waffles; I'm talking about a kid who brought in a waffle iron and a huge vat of waffle batter (and all the ingredients, in case we ran out).  I read the paper and watched the movie.  A couple of boys wrestled each other to the ground (the smaller kid won with the under-the-ear-pressure-point hold).  Other people who aren't in that class floated in and out of the room to hang out.

The key is looking up in a moment, and seeing that you wouldn't restructure that moment in any other way.  We even talked briefly about how we would explain to an administrator (if he or she were to walk in) why we were watching an 80s movie:  "You see, The Breakfast Club is a psycho-social experiment about the different manifestations of high school, dependent on who you are."
(You see, I'm trying to teach them how to think ...)

I'm going to miss these seniors.  I miss them every year, even before they're gone.  I don't cry (only once, actually, when a girl I barely knew grabbed me after the senior video - tears streaming down here face - and told me she didn't know how she would ever find her way in life).  But it's a life-changing event for all of us.  Even the younger classes who are simply moving up a category next year.

We ebb; we flow.

People come; people go.