With change, comes goodbye's

 I’m feeling a little like a trucks hit me....everything is happening so fast....Mama came and went, the graduation countdown and race is fully on, and my kiddos soon won’t be my kiddos anymore. I'm doing an atrocious amount of grammar and math each day, wiping tears off of their little overwhelmed faces, and trying to stop fights between them as they let their frustration of too much work and no playtime come out. All the while, I’ve been battling an annoying and persistent cold. I would pray the weekend comes faster but that means I only have my kids for 2 more days until they are gone.    :(

Change is a funny thing. Personally I crave it. I love it. It screams opportunity to me and makes me excited for the possibilities. But the problem I have is that I get very attached to people or things that are happening in my life, so with change comes quite a bit of heartache.

Tuesday is my last day with my Kinder class. Here in Korea the school year ends in February instead of June like in the States, so they are moving up. They are graduating and going to first grade and I don’t know if I will ever see them again. I truly love my 11 sweet, crazy, and naughty children and it seems very wrong for me to go to work and not have them there waiting for me. Now, I know I will get another adorable and crazy Kinder class to teach that I will equally love and adore, but it’s still so hard to let them go. With change, comes goodbye’s. 

It reminds me of all the times I would have a child ‘age out’ of my therapy services back in NC. You see, I would work with children with special needs and when they turned 3 years old, they had to look for therapy from a different kind of therapist. I worked with the babies; ages 0-3. The most vulnerable. The most influential. The most needy. The best, I always thought because it was so rewarding when you helped a child say their first words or take their first steps. But when they would age out of my services, turning 3 years old, I would cry like a baby in my car outside of their house knowing I would probably never see them again. But then I would get a new amazing child on my caseload that would take their place. With change, comes goodbyes. It’s a part of life….things, people, or places are constantly changing, improving or being replaced. 

Sometimes I feel like I’m on those tea cups at the amusement park where you keep spinning and spinning and spinning…things are changing so fast in front of your eyes you can’t quite take it all in. So you eventually just PUKE. Well, I’m less of a puker, more of crier, but you get the point. :)

So this Tuesday when they are singing "Lean On Me" and working so hard to be perfect at their little play on stage, I will have to try to focus less on the goodbye part, and instead focus on the opportunity part. I had the opportunity to influence their lives for 6 months, and now I will have the opportunity to influence many more little Korean lives for the next 6 months.

Well that’s the game plan anyway…..I will bring tissues just in case.