The Last Day

I am writing this late at night, the whole family have gone to bed. It is impossibly hot (as Bangladesh is prone to be at this time of the year) and we’ve given in to the air-con in our bedroom to survive.

It’s a busy time – somehow or other I ended up in charge of a youth group and this coming weekend is the annual seminar weekend. Would be great except I have never attended one before at LAMB and I have little idea how they are supposed to run! Yet I’m supposed to make sure it all comes together. I can honestly say I’ll be glad to hand it over to someone else later in the year. I love the kids but I was far from the best choice to be in charge.

But that’s not on my mind right now, despite all the organising stress it is taking.

Tomorrow is the last day of the year for LAMB school and my final morning of teaching. I get a couple of lessons with my grade 7 & 8 Science class and then…the end.

I won’t be doing any work, of course. It will be messing around watching silly videos and pictures of daft things I’ve collected over the years. Very possibly we’ll watch some Fawlty Towers I discovered years ago that this particular comedy series span cultures. It’s hilarious in any country it would seem despite being rather British. Whatever, the aim will be to leave ’em laughing and with fond memories.

The lessons will go by quickly, I know it. My desk is already cleared of my personal belongings – just the text books and old exam papers I know longer need sit on it waiting to be picked up by the next person. I will walk out of that classroom and have a quick cup of cha during the tea break and – then I’m done.

There won’t be time to take it all in right then – perhaps that’s why I’m doing it now, in advance as it were? I already have another meeting to go to straight after break and I have two MA essays on the go for when I get back.

The day after tomorrow Thing I and I begin our preparations for JulNoWriMo and Thing II (who’s not known for his love of writing) is intending to join us and try to get 50,000 words out too. He’s still young and I don’t have any expectations of him yet, but hopefully he’ll enjoy the attempt for a few days until he gets bored. That said, kids have always surprised me and my two are no exception. I expected Thing I to give up part-way through last year too but she didn’t. Instead, she got far more than 50,000 words written and they were good too. I’ve promised that this July I’ll help her tidy it up enough that I can send a proposal to a publisher – it’s a pretty good novel, I have to say. If you follow her blog justathirdculturekid then you’ll know she has a good writing style.

So who know? Maybe Thing II will keep going and produce something amazing too? Maybe – but if he does it is likely to be highly…imaginative. ADHD is strong in that one…

Right now though, I have no idea if I will come home tomorrow morning after teaching (and after that meeting) and sit down with another cup of cha and a sigh or relief or regret. It could be either; it might be both. The end has not been easy and there have been some upsets along the way in recent days.

But I am certain of one thing and one thing only:

It’s time to move on.