Turn Out the Lights...

Closing time--
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
--Semisonic, "Closing Time"

As I closed the door on my empty and darkened classroom, I was surprised by two things.

First, I was surprised by the amount of stuff I actually had in that classroom before it became empty. I have a CRV full of boxes: books, papers, a football, two softballs, coffee cans full of words clipped from magazines, notebooks, file folders, a bobble head doll of Columbia's mayor, Play-Doh--all kinds of stuff. You don't realize how much it is as you carry it in day by day over the course of four years, but when you have to haul it out all at once, it's pretty overwhelming.

Second, I was surprised at how easy it was to shut the door and go. Don't get me wrong. I will miss being at Hickman next year. I will miss the many great friends I have made there, I will miss the certainty of knowing what I am teaching and how I should teach it. I will miss the opportunity to see the juniors I had this year grow as seniors and graduate next year. I will miss the familiarity of knowing where evrything is and how everything is done.

But, as I walked out of the main office, after turning in my keys and officially relinquishing my title to walk the halls without a visitor's pass, I realized that I am ready for this move. I am ready to put this excellent (mostly) experience behind me and try something sort of new. I mean, I suppose teaching is teaching no matter where you are (but, maybe not), but I am really interested and excited to be in a different place, if only to experience how a different district and a different school runs itself.

Maybe it will be very much the same. Maybe it will be amazingly better. Maybe it will be dreadfully worse. I just don't know. But, I do know that I have been a lame duck for an entire school year, and it's time for that to be over.

One other thing I do know: I will make a concerted effort not to stash eighteen box loads of shit in my new classroom!