Finally! It seems like the 180 days of the school year take forever to end once the calendar page flips to June. Today was the day for Fairfax County students.
It's been a tough year at the school I call home. We had several staff members who had long illnesses. We had one staff member out for several weeks through her mother's hospice care and death. People shouldered the tasks their colleagues would have done, sometimes learning new procedures.
We celebrated, too. There were new babies, new grandbabies, graduations, engagements and weddings. There were community recognitions for the school and our principal.
Through it all, we lived with more than 800 school children; children who challenged and delighted us, children who smiled and cried, children who laughed during lunch and threw up on their way to the clinic, children who gave us purpose.
Tomorrow I'll go back to my desk at the school. The bell will ring at 8:30 and there will be no children stampeding from bus to classroom. The cafeteria will be closed, the clinic will not be visited, no one will go to recess. The dismissal bell will ring at 3:10 and there will be no late daycare vans, no parents calling to say they're stuck in traffic.
You know, it won't take me long. I'll be missing them all soon. And when the calendar page turns to August, I'll be counting the days 'til school starts.
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