"I really only have one regret," I told a small group of colleagues half-jokingly at our end-of-the-year staff party yesterday afternoon. "It's that I was never on the morning announcements."
For years I have told students that The Announcements is my favorite show-- it has everything: news, inspiration, bloopers, and kids I know; it's the best 10 minutes on television. Once and a while, a teacher would do a guest appearance as a broadcaster, and on those occasions, I would cross my fingers and hope that someone would ask me to be next. "Have you ever been on?" my students would ask then, and I had to sadly shake my head.
But yesterday when I expressed the same regret, another teacher whipped out her phone. "It's not too late!" she said as she texted, and a moment later she reported, "You're on for tomorrow!"
I literally leapt for joy at this unexpected turn. Then a little while later, in another conversation, I was reminded of one other thing. "I also always wanted to be the Yellow Jacket mascot," I admitted to the assistant principal.
"We can arrange that!" she said. "What if you go down to sixth-grade lunch tomorrow in it?"
I was thrilled! My last day of teaching was shaping up to be an amazing one, filled with dreams come true.
And it was! Being on the announcements was really fun; the kids on the crew were happy to have me, and I did a respectable job. Plus all my former students saw I had finally gotten a spot on my favorite show, and they congratulated me all day.
Before I suited up as mascot, I read up on the job, and I was well prepared to dance and wave and give high fives and hugs. It was also an amazing experience. At the end of the day, I stood at my desk as a few colleagues came in to say good-bye.
"How are you doing?" asked one.
"Pretty good," I answered. "I can honestly say I've done everything I ever wanted to do at this school."
"Well, that's the way to leave," he said. "You've done it right."
No comments:
Post a Comment