The Freedom of Summer...

Refocusing. I guess that's what I'm in the process of doing. Last week I spent five days in bed sick. I haven't been that sick - oh, possibly ever. I didn't proctor the exams I was supposed to proctor. Other people covered them. My end of the year reports will get written this week instead of last. Everything came to a standstill and I did nothing. Kind of makes you re-think life, eh? What's important and what's not? Relationships continued last week. But those tasks that I worry about so much? They didn't get done. And guess what? The world didn't stop. :)

I am thankful to be feeling better (still a bit weak, but hey - my body waged war on some gremlin germs last week!), and thankful that I was well enough to attend graduation on Friday and some other end of the year festivities. It's that time of year where there are many good-byes - some for the summer, some for a year, some for who knows how long.

I went back to the doctor this morning. As I walked home, and did a few errands on the way, I felt the freedom of summer. You know - that laid-back, unscheduled feeling to life. :) I haven't felt that in a long time. English Camp pretty much consumed my past few summers, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this "sabbath summer."

The End of Classes!

Today is our last day of classes. In ten minutes, we as a school will gather to end the day (and symbolically the school year) with chapel. Next Monday through Wednesday are exams, and then Friday is graduation. Then we will disperse all of the world - literally - before reconvening as a group to start a new school year in August, with roughly 1/3 of our staff and students being new faces. (Yup, that's how high the turnover is here. That's pretty typical for our type of school/community.)

It's a sunny and warm day. Birds are chirping. There seem to be more students - and visitors! - flitting around during classes. Yup, you can tell it's the end of the school year. We are all ready to be done, but the teachers are trying to hold the reins tight until 3:50pm.

At that point, we'll be just as glad as the students to let them go! Oh, but there are still exams to be taken and graded. Good-byes to be said. An Awards Ceremony and Graduation to be held. One more week. THEN we can really let the reins go. (Oh don't get us wrong - we LOVE our students, but we're just as ready for a break as they are!)