Wheelbarrow Manor: Saying Goodbye

Tomorrow is going to be a very sad day for me. It is the last day of the summer session at the school that I teach. That part actually makes me happy! But, I have to say goodbye to two teachers who I will miss a great deal. One in particular I have known since I was in first grade. We were very good friends my freshman and sophomore years in high school but then went out separate ways as we made new friends in different groups. After high school I never really saw her but would run into her mom or get a Christmas card and knew what she was up to. I knew she was the assistant director at the little day school where I now work. A few years ago I called her to find out information about sending Big Bear there. From that phone call, not only did I end up sending Big Bear there, but I also ended up finding a job I didn't know I was looking for! I was still struggling with the fact that I wasn't a stay at home mom and desperately wanted to be one. But this job, teaching at this school, afforded me the next best thing...a job but one in which my children were very near by while I worked. Anyway, my friend is going to work full time. All of her kids are in school now and her family needs the extra income. I am going to miss her so much. What a blessing it has been to reconnect with someone from my past at this time.

I really enjoy teaching pre-K. I know it is not my forever job...however, it is my wonderful, couldn't have asked for a better situation for now job. My kids are down the hall from me all day long. I know their teachers very well. I know all the kids in their class because I pass them in the hallway, peek in the classroom, and even sometimes get to share library or playground time with them. I can watch them during the day when they don't know it - eating lunch, interacting with their classmates, sitting in group time or laying down on their nap mats. This brings me to the really hard part of tomorrow. It is Big Bear's very last day ever in preschool...in the school where I am so close to her. She will never walk into the school with me in the morning. I'll never peek at her in her classroom again. I won't pass her in the hallway anymore. I won't know her classmates or teachers as intimately as I do now. She is going off where I can't be with her. I can't hug her when she's having a bad day or smile while watching her practice for the Christmas program. I know this is supposed to be a happy time...she's so happy and excited about it. But I'm just not...I'm so, so sad. Nothing will ever be the same. I know in my mind that it has the potential for being much, much better but my heart is so sad right now at the fact that it won't be the same as it is now.

Here are some pictures from her very first day at our wonderful school...

This is from her second year there...although it's obviously not a first day picture. I don't have any and I'm not sure why! I know it is a horrible picture but it has her brand new backpack...you can see the box in the background. So it's close enough to the first day?? I know - it's awful!