saying goodbye... in march

I keep thinking about the song "Saying Goodbye" from The Muppets Take Manhattan. It's a quiet, lovely Muppet song, and when I was younger I would fast forward through it because I wanted to get back to the fast-talking Muppet brand of sass.

The sentiment of "Saying goodbye, why is it sad?/Makes us remember the good times we've had/Much more to say, foolish to try/It's time for saying goodbye/" never made much sense to me, as a little kids. But now I have some perspective, and have an idea of saying goodbye, I definitely appreciate the sad sad song. And especially now, as we approach the end of the year, it rings true. Not really for me, but for my kids, who have been at TIOH for years; many of them have been there, together, since Mommy and Me, and are now preparing themselves to leave. It's only mid-March, but I think they're getting ready to part and some of them (and definitely some of their parents) are having a hard time with this.

These feelings are especially intense this week because on Friday the Middle School acceptance/denial letters will be mailed, and the kids (and many, if not all, of their parents) are on some serious edge. It's a very stress-inducing process and it's reaching the climax. Some will have a happy weekend; others, not so much. Thank god they'll have the weekend to digest and come to school Monday (hopefully) doing okay.

So, to prepare them, Jo ended the day today with a class talk. We went to the courtyard and sat in a circle and went around talking about our favorite (or great) things about this year. It was so lovely, so nice, so positive. It was a crazy week last week, and there was some lingering craze today, crossed with growing stress and anxiety about the letters, that it was a great way to center the kids (and the teachers) and remind them how wonderful each and every one of them are.

At the same time, it totally reminded all of them (and the teachers) that there's only 10 weeks of teaching left in the year. So, yeah, we're getting ready to say goodbye.