Last day of school

And so another milestone passes silently...the last day of teaching of my first full year of teaching. (It is my second year overall, but I taught only until the end of April last year and subbed for May and June...much different.) I have been fortunate enough to have time to end well over the past week: my classroom files are organized, my grades are in, and I am a few short staff meeting days away from summer vacation. For the first time, I am not making a transition over the summer - I am not moving, switching jobs, or getting married; I am living in the same place, with the same person (obviously) returning to the same school, and teaching five of the same seven subjects, all of which fall within my training. As a result, unlike previous last days of school, today feels almost anti-climactic in a refreshing way. I have worked very hard over the past ten months, and though I have made many mistakes along the way, I have done my job with as much ability and integrity as I could have. So despite the fact that today is not a life-changing day, it is a life-affirming day, and it is good. Perhaps I will take the time to relax tonight and re-engage in one of my favourite end of school rituals from my youth - watching the 1992Tiny Toons classic How I Spent My Summer Vacation. It never gets old.