I survived, ya'll! It's miracle. Today was emotional, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I handed out the books that my dad ordered and they absolutely LOVED them! I had written a note inside each one and they were excited to have a book of their own. After handing out the books, they all went around and said their favorite memory of me. I was tearing up because it was so cute. Some I didn't remember, but most of them were extremely cute. Of course some were like "remember that time you got the ball for me when it went over the fence as recess," which is like a weekly occurrence, so I just had to nod and smile. Some of them were really cute, though, and very well thought out for a first grader. After lunch, we came back and had cupcakes as a "Ms. Russo's last day" special treat. They all drew me pictures and wrote me letters, which was great. They were really emotional too and kept coming up and giving me hugs. The hugs get me and I started tearing up with a few of them.
Course Coaching went a lot better than I thought it did. I didn't cry because they were just full of attitude and spunk. They were so excited to pie me in the face, they couldn't control themselves. I wanted to study for their science final a little bit, so I made them do that for a half an hour. They were just about to lose it from excitement, though, so the studying didn't last long. I had gotten them each a book, made them a book mark with a superlative for them on it, and written them each a note that I handed out. They could have cared less at that moment because all they could think about was the pie in the face. I made them take a picture with me and then we headed outside.
Luckily, I had brought an extra shirt to put on and was all ready. JA went first and right before she tossed the plate full of whipped cream forward, she smiled and said "this is for all of the sign ins you gave me" and smothered it on my face. It was....great. Next up was JR and she nearly broke my nose as she slammed the plate into my face. I had whipped cream in my ears, up my nose and on my eyelashes at that point and MO still had to go. By the time MO slammed it in my face and smeared it all around, I was a true mess. It was in my hair, on my shirt, up my nose, and in my ears. The kids, though, were loving it! They took videos of every pie to the face, I have tons of pictures, and they couldn't stop jumping up and down and smiling.
While they haven't read my note and acted like they didn't even want it, it was all worth it because it was so fun to watch them freak out over a pie to the face. I gave them all my email address, phone number and address, so hopefully they'll stay in touch. I am so proud of each of them because they have all come so far academically and/or behaviorally. It's been a true joy and blessing to have them after school.
I know that tomorrow is going to be tough. I have remained strong because my team has been strong, but tomorrow is going to be different. Everyone is going to be emotional, so I don't know how easy it will be. It will be the big goodbye. In some ways, I want to cry. I feel like it needs to happen because that way it will feel like it's really ending. I'm sure it will, but I've been surprisingly composed this week and that worries me that I won't be able to deal with it in the way that I want to. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
Instead of ending with a quote, I thought I would end with the letter that MO wrote me as a thank you. This one had me tearing up reading it.
Dear Ms. Russo,
Thank you for helping me so much this year. Even though I almost made you pull your hair out. Thank you for making me realize that I need to take more responsibility of myself and my work. These are some cookies that I made representing my appreciation.
that second line gets me every time....
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