All my students have safely landed in the UK and are quickly settling into life there, trying to shake off their jet lag. And less than 24 hours after the last few touched down there, i will be meeting my new students.
Maybe it's a good thing - not having much time to miss my students...
Come tomorrow, everything changes. During our staff meeting last Friday, the Dean was saying how i was the only staff member who was there when she first joined. Yes, i will be the most senior member in terms of the time spent in Taylor's Law School. The school has changed completely. Everyone who was here when i first joined has left.
The head of the school is now the Dean - and she joined not long after i did. The admin staff are all different. All my frens who were my fellow lecturers have either left or retired. We are now located at the new campus. And we'll be having 40 plus new students tomorrow.
Taylor's Law School is totally unrecognisable if you last saw it before the academic year of 2007-2008.
I'm not complaining. I like the new campus. I've been back to the old campus a couple of times and altho the walls there hold lots of wonderful memories, the building without the people is nothing.
I have a good working relationship with the admin staff. I get along pretty well with the Dean and the Deputy Dean. Altho i do not know the new staff members well, the initial signs bodes well and i am excited to be working with them - after all, new brooms sweep cleaner, dun they?
Students? Well, they come and go. That is a given. It would be bad for all if they do not leave!!!!
But altho we know they will leave us, altho it is expected that they will eventually leave, it still does not make it any more easier when they actually do.
Sure, there are some that you dun mind - and are in fact happy - to see their backs as they go off. But i'm so blessed as those are few. Very few.
Being with the students most of the time, they do hold special places in my heart. We share so much together, go to places for visits or just hang out on campus. I really enjoy their company. At times, they are the ones that keep me going. What is my crown and my reward? Them! They have a way of brightening up my days, they never fail to make me laugh, they bring so much happiness and laughter into my life, they entertain me with their antics, they encourage me with their potential, they even teach me a thing or two even if i'm supposed to be the teacher!
And for some of them, they are not just my students - they are my frens. They support me, lend me an ear to listen, earn my trust, pull me up when i'm down, make me feel good when i feel otherwise. Is it any wonder why i'll miss them?
The over 10 thousand km separating us now will be the test of our frenship. Will it be"out of sight, out of mind"? Or "absence makes the heart grows fonder"? Altho i hope it is the latter, it is usually the former. After all, it must be so exciting and so fun for all them now, seeing new places, meeting new people, experiencing a brand new life!
Them being there will change our relationship - and it'll prolly never be the same again. Still, i'll try not to be sad. For this is inevitable. This is life. I've been thru so much of goodbyes that i've accepted it as part and parcel of what we have to go thru while we're still on this terrestrial ball. And instead of being sad, i will be happy for those moments that we shared together.
Yes, everything changes - but that is not a bad thing, for thru knowing them, my life has been changed forever.
And for that, my dear students, i thank you - and i thank God for knowing you.
*The title track of their 2nd album, this song was released as a single when i was studying in London - so it always brings back wonderful memories! =)
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