here's to the class of 2006

since i haven't fully recovered from typhoid (after 2 months) i am not returning to woodstock for graduation or to india to travel with my friends in ladakh. thus, i must say my farewells via the most sincere method of communication, email. it's funny, because i never realized how much i avoid goodbyes. i knew that i might not be able to return, but yet i put off my goodbyes to friends and students until graduation, later, etc. so i decided i had to send an email to my students, how proud i am, how much i learned from them, wishing them well in the future. i wanted it to have some wisdom imbedded, some words to live by.

in retrospect, it is impossible as a teacher not to sound corny writing things like that to students. impossible not to sound like the cards in the hallmark "graduation" aisle or the placards about achieving your dreams. i wrote about their potential, being proud of their accomplishments, telling them to take risks and make the most of things. thanking them for teaching me, being glad to have been their teacher, etc. i always complain this time of year about the corny pop songs released, tugging on the emotional chords of every graduate. "friends forever (the graduation song)" by vitamin c, "here's to the night" by eve 6, and the like. but, ultimately, it is impossible not taking on a tone full of sapp at times like these. we build these moments up to mean something, creating an end and beginning to demarcate childhood from adulthood, creating a nostalgia for a place (look at how damn nostalgic i am, i am like the queen of nostalgia). my students, upon receiving their goodbye email, will now have their fill of hallmark emotion and corny phrases (which i REALLY meant!) this is sappy mcsappstra, herself, signing out.