Saying Goodbye is Never Easy!

     It is amazing to me how quickly this year has gone by!  Seems just like yesterday that my kids walked through my classroom door for the first time.
     We have gotten to the point when I have to get ready to say goodbye.  I say "Get ready" because for me it is a build up. 
     Consciously I know that I have done my job as an educator, and now my job is over.  My brain knows that June marks the end of a school year, and that when the last day comes I am to wish my kids well, thank them for a wonderful school year, then send them on their way to bigger and better things. 
     I will remove the art work from my walls that my kids created for me...just because.  I will take down all of the little notes from my kids that I have taped to my computer, or bookshelf at eye level so that at any given moment I can turn in any direction and read a student generated..."Have a good day, Mr. Mac"  or  a quip from my class clown.  I will remove all of my student's work from the walls, and the charts from my bulletin boards marking my student's progress on AM and AR. 
     When the kids have gone, and I have cleaned my classroom, taken down all of my posters, and covered all of my bookshelves...my classroom will revert to walls, desks, and white boards.  It will become a blank, sterile place...nothing will be left to show that I, or any of my kids were ever there.  All of this is typical for a teacher.  All of this is normal.  My brain knows, and accepts this.  If only my heart could follow suit.
     Today, after my kids left for the day, I stood alone in my classroom and looked over every inch of it (As I do every year at this time).  Everywhere I looked I saw my kids.  They had all boarded buses for home, but they were all there just the same.  My room had taken on the personalities of 30 young minds.  My room's atmosphere was thick with experiences, laughter, learning, and growth.  I say "My" room...it hasn't been my room for many months now.  It is OUR room...my kids and I own it together. 
     The last day of school will be extremely hard for me; it always is.  To think that it is so close hurts my heart.  Knowing that I will have to say goodbye fills me with a bittersweet melancholy.  These kids who have each etched themselves into my heart will leave, but the memory of them...of each of them, will remain with me forever.  Though the classroom walls will be stripped, and all of the desks emptied out...that feeling I had today, of them being there when they weren't is indelible...it is forever.  I am so proud of my kids, and all they have accomplished this year.