As we go on, we remember...

Yes I quoted the famous song "Graduation" by Vitamin C (thats a singer, not a nutrient). If you do not know it check out the video below. Play the song while you read this final Friday blog entry...

Today was the last day of school. It was the last day of student teaching for us here in Barrow, AK. And while yes I have been looking forward to this day for awhile ( no more waking up at ungodly hours, no more frustrating kids) I am having bittersweet emotions. Today at the middle school as I got ready to leave I looked around at my cooperating teachers packed up classroom and shed a few tears, no waterfall mind you but a couple of tears. My peers know this about me... I cry at the drop of a hat. It is usually something simple but powerful. I thought that when this day arrived I would be sitting around waiting for it to be over, now I find myself saying I wish I could do it all over again.

As I started making the rounds to the classrooms of people I have been working with the past 6 weeks to say goodbye I realized something. I wasn't saying goodbye to my co-workers I was saying goodbye to my family, I was saying goodbye to people who had so graciously opened their hearts and homes to me and accepted me as one of their own (needless to say a few more tears where shed). Emotions shock you when do not expect them and I was very shocked to see how attached I had become to a place with no trees or grass, never ending light in the spring and summer, and where it just broke freezing temperatures yesterday. Whatttttt!?!?! Its something you cannot explain until you get here and experience it for yourself, yes "you had to be here" kind of thing.

With the end of student teaching comes graduation. Yes in a couple of weeks we graduate from college. The past four years of our lives have been dedicated to Gustavus and it has helped shape us into the people we are today. While I am excited for graduation I am sad that college is ending, I am nervous about finding a job, and I am anxious to get out into the real world. How does a person handle all those emotions at once? I will tell you. Support. Support from friends and family. So at this time I would like to thank my supporters. I would like to thank my co-Barrowites and Ilisagvik peeps for making my time in Barrow stupendously wonderful and at times interesting. I would like to thank all my wonderful friends at home for still talking to me, even though I am 3,000 miles away. I would also like to thank my family for their support (emotional and financial...) whilst in Barrow, I know you sometimes think I am crazy for doing the things I do, but thanks for being there anyway. Oh, and thanks for installing Skype on your computers so I could talk to you!

While I am excited to get home and see my family I am also sad to leave. It is one of those many bittersweet moments that life presents to you, but I know that I will look back at my time spent here in Barrow and Eben Hopson Middle School as a time I treasured dearly, where I learned a lot and grew just as much.

I'll be seeing you,
Meredith