Graduation

In five short days, my undergraduate career will be over. I will walk down the stage and receive my diploma (holder) as Betty Williams, the woman who made me a four-year plan before I ever took a class at Whitworth, calls out my name. My professors will be there, my closest friends will be there, and my parents and brother will be there (Sean, I will miss you dearly, my sister).

On Saturday night, at about 1:00am (though my alarm was set for 7:15am to leave for Bloomsday), I started talking with two friends in their living room about first memories of people from Whitworth... my first memories of coming back from a volleyball trip to New York during which everyone moved in, memories of meeting roommates and friends, memories of people who were "friends" for a few days and then we never saw them again... How short these four years have seemed, yet how long ago that day feels.

I am essentially done with student teaching at this point. I will be in my classroom tomorrow afternoon and all day Friday, but I am no longer teaching. I am just loving life, loving on these kids, and trying to have JM (one of my students who is Deaf) teach me sign language. Today, I was having him read (well, sign) the sentences in his book (e.g. "I smell the dog") and then once he signed them, I would do my best to sign them back to him. I was trying to sign "ant," which looks like this:

...except I had my hands switched (left hand on top) and JM was VERY quick to grab my hands, switch them, and then laugh at me for messing up. Oh how I love this child. He has the greatest facial expressions and never ceases to make me laugh.

I am preparing for a water works show on Sunday... I will be crying my eyes out. My time between May 13th (graduation) and June 20th (my first day of camp) is very much up in the air, though I am finishing up paperwork to substitute in a district close to my parents' house for the remainder of the school year. Crossing my fingers that will work out... But one never knows. For now, it is off to dinner with sweet Liz and our Whitworth supervisor... where I will probably cry more. Because I guess one good cry for the day just isn't enough. Let the tears of loss and change and excitement and freedom and graduation keep on coming...