On Leaving the Family

This post is from my previous blog, Musings de la Maestra McH. Enjoy this classic post!

Today was the last day of school.  It was also my last day at my current school/my first full-time teaching position.  We have a saying at my school that we are the Mustang family.  As with any family, there are times I’d like to strangle some of them.

There are also moments like today when a junior girl came in to my cleaned-up, emptied out, desks stacked against the wall room and said, “I wanted to thank you.  I was working on a scholarship last night and I wrote about you because you are the person that got me interested in Spanish.  Before you, I didn’t really like it.  You made me really enjoy it and want to learn.  I’m going to miss you.”  It’s moments like that that make leaving my “family” so difficult.  It’s moments like that that remind me why I entered this crazy profession.

It’s also the freshman boy with a spotty behavior record and a less than stable home that writes a note on his final saying, “I’ll miss you.  You’re a great teacher.  Thank you for believing in me.”

It’s also the superintendent that stands at the end of the buffet line at the annual end-of-year luncheon filling iced tea cups and handing them out.  I don’t know any other supers that do that.

It’s the colleagues that organize a surprise going away party for you the night before school gets out.

It’s laughing with your fellow penthouse (3rd floor of a 100 year old building) residents as we try to stay sane, dress up like ninja turtles and share coffee Fridays after pay day.

It’s realizing that being part of a family, however crazy we may be, is something pretty special.

Thank you to all my family,

Maestra McH.