Summer is here

Summer is upon us.  I look forward to this time all year long- it is what I think of when I am fed up with my students, with waking up at 5 am every morning, with never having time to clean my house.  So why is it that with its arrival I am filled with such nostalgia?
This year marks my fourth year here in Alto.  This year the students that I have taught since their freshman year are graduating.  On Friday night, I will sit in the stands and watch them walk across the stage for the final time.  I will see them together, laughing, crying, cheering, and hugging each other- as they have done for the last thirteen years of their lives- for the last time.  They will hug me good-bye (or not) and I will see them when they come to visit or pick up transcripts (or not), but it will never be the same. 
While they were at graduation practice yesterday, I was cleaning out my cupboard.  I found poems, posters, projects, and short stories they had written.  I have kept these things for the last four years mostly on accident, but gathering them up and throwing them away at the same time my seniors were coming in to tell my good-bye was so bittersweet.  I realize how quickly time flies by and how important it is to tell people everything good and wonderful about them every minute you have with them because the time we have to influence them for good or help them understand something is so small.  I will never see these kids in this same context again.  They are grown.  I have done my job, and I pray that I did it well enough that it will enable them to succeed in the world outside.
And another day has passed and I am on day two of trying to write this post!  Today is the last day of school.  Very few students are here, my room is clean, and I am going to go pick the boys up "early" so that they can feel special ;)  It has been a great year, a busy (crazy busy) spring, and now the kids and I get the summer to just play sports, games, travel, and SLEEP IN!
I love what I do, especially in the summer ;)