Saying Goodbye

As I may have mentioned (here) I’m soon saying goodbye to Madrid, a city I have spent the last four years making my home.

In addition to the myriad of “commitment issue questions” that come up every time I leave a new place, it always makes me think about the nature of saying goodbye.

The Nature of Saying Goodbye

Yesterday I had my last day of work and many goodbye experiences.  Teacher goodbyes are especially weird because we say goodbye SO often that I think people get a little desensitized.  For example, this spring I said goodbye to 79 students that I basically spent more time with during the course of a week than my friends.  When I left public school it was double that number (see related post from greatschools.org about the importance of class size here).  Teachers say goodbye to EACH OTHER at least twice a year (three times if you count spring break).

I always have a range of goodbye experiences at the end of a school year.

The best:

1. This year, my last period students demanding a speech, exit music from High School Musical and a “hug train” as they left their last class of their freshman year.  (Fair warning if you click the video link-I’ve somehow made it through seven years of teaching without having to watch High School Musical.  Based on this audio clip, it seems like it might be the most annoying movie in the world?  If you’re not a teenager, I mean. BUT there is video footage of Zac Efron involved, so “benefits and drawbacks” as they say.)
2. Any student who writes a card.  Gifts are also obviously encouraged appreciated.
3. Goodbye party goodbyes!  It’s so nice to have a succinct focus at an occasion.  This can be anything from a whole-faculty part to a department breakfast.  People clap, they hand you a cookbook (it’s a long story) and voila, goodbye complete.

The worst:

1. The not-getting-to-say-goodbye goodbye.  I don’t know if you’ve recently been at a school on the last day before a vacation, but people tend to clear out faster than if Kirstjen Nielsen showed up at a party. So, there are lots of people you think you will see that you just don’t.
2. The ones where it is too awkward to hug.  Newsflash: The end of school is always at the beginning of summer.  Some people don’t like to hug in 97 degree heat.  Some people don’t like to hug at all, especially when they have to say goodbye to between 85-207 people (see above).  Soooo…sometimes I end up sort of shifting from foot to foot an uncomfortable distance away from someone and waving.  It’s weird.
3. The ones where I you start to cry around people you don’t know very well.  Goodbyes are emotional…sometimes the feelings just hit when you’re talking to a lower school spanish teacher you’ve never met before.  Life happens.  Related note: The chin quiver might be almost as bad as actual crying.  My chin is super un-fabulous when it quivers.

The good news?  Every year I get a little better at goodbyes.  For example, this time I didn’t cry AT ALL. While I was in front of people, I mean.  I did have what my boyfriend would probably refer to as a “moderate-to-large” emotional breakdown over the course of several hours at the thought of handing back my work keys.  And my COMPUTER! Who would have thought it was possible to develop an emotional attachment to a $37 Asus laptop?

Happy summer! Photos of summer-fabulous Sardinia circa 2017 below to celebrate. (I like to call my hair color here “Spanish neon blonde”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banner Photo Credit:  Victor Garcia