Summer Tears

The day began like all the others: rushing because I woke up late, barely grabbing my coffee as I rushed out the door. Speeding through the yellow light, only to hit the next red one. It really was a typical morning for me. Little did I know this year the last day of school would bring tears.

All. The. Tears. When I was in the classroom, the end of the school year with middle schoolers was always like "Bye Felicia" and we would try desperately to keep them from trashing the hallways with the loads of papers from their lockers. When I became an instructional coach, the end of the school year was just a locked office door and off I went on "travel" season (my nickname for summertime!). But this year, the end of the school year was all about the tears.

Once I got to school, I began my normal routine: check my email, drink some coffee, and then grab the radio so I can head out to the parking lot to greet everyone as they arrive. That's where the tears started. It's pretty normal for some kids to wake up on the wrong side of the bed and not want to let go of their parents. I was not prepared for one parent to roll down her window and said "the last drop off here!" and her eyes were glistened with tears. Her child was moving onto middle school.

I then went inside to discover that we had a student situation that ended in a tearful goodbye. We hadn't even started the school day officially, and already the summer tears were flowing.

Over the course of the day, I walked the hallways watching students enjoy the last hours with their teachers, hanging out outside and every once in awhile, would see tears. I watched a group of 5th grade boys cry as I won a bet against them and they had to dance in front of their classemates. I guess I do still have some basketball skills tucked away in this ole body of mine! 

I watched the normal day tears from "he cut in line" to someone getting pushed down. Tears of wounded knees and bruised shoulders. Tears also flowed from students who were getting picked up early for various reasons. 

There were new tears today, ones that I had never really seen in a school day before. The tears of students who didn't want to leave. Tears from the last hugs as students got onto the buses until next year and the tears from students who just "loved school so much!!!". These tears were new to me, and I was confused by them until the last bus pulled away.

You know those times in your life where you are so focused on the task at hand, you put everything into it and you go, go, go until you stop? As that last bus pulled away, I stopped. And the tears came. Not tears of sadness or frustration, which by the way definitely happened this year. But just tears of gratitude and realization that yes this is what I'm supposed to be. For that brief moment, all the tears I had seen throughout the day made sense. We weren't crying because the school year was over, we were crying because "we just love school soo much!!!!!" I stole this quote from another great principal reflecting on his year. It explains exactly why the tears flowed in the quiet after bus duty:

I have to say, of all my 12 years in education, this end to the school year tops the cake. As those of you have read and followed along on my first year as an assistant principal, you've come to find out that I truly believe I have the greatest job in the world.