Matura/COS

Finishing Peace Corps can be compared a lot to graduating from high school or college. There are many similarities in the form and feelings- lots of paperwork and thinking about the future, lots of mixed emotions.

Last week was the "Matura" celebration here. I joined some of my students from OA and last years MUN team on their "T-shirt" day. The tradition here is that the whole graduating class gets a t-shirt of the same color (this year it was blue) printed with the "Matura 2010" and they sign each others shirts with markers. I signed as many t-shirts as I could (until my hand cramped up :). This is accompanied with dancing (always circle dancing) in the school yard that last a few hours. Now these seniors are basically done with school except for their graduation exams that are taken in June.

This week I get to complete my own graduation: Close of Service. COS includes me writing my Description of Service, taking a check out medical exam and doing interviews with various staff members. I don't think I'll have a t-shirt to sign, but I do have a COS check-list that requires the signatures of lots of people. Just like the graduating seniors here, I'm not sure what the future will hold, but I can't wait to find out . . .

This feels like when my seniors graduated . . .

When I was a freshmen in high school, I was adopted by some seniors. They had known my sister and they must have thought I was cute or something (like a kitten) and so they allowed me to follow them around for the year. I had friends in my own grade too, but particularly that year, I hung out mostly with older kids. When it came time for graduation, I nearly had a breakdown. I mean, the people I had gotten closest too in that year (and remember high school is hard) were all of a sudden leaving, and many of them were going far away to scary places like California and Colorado Springs. I was afraid that I would never see them again! Of course, that didn't happen. I e-mailed with some of them regularly, hung out with them when they came home for holidays and when most of them moved back to Denver at some point after college, we became close again. In fact, a few of these kids are still some of my closest friends more than 10 years later.

Right now, the volunteers from Group 10 are getting ready to leave. This has a big impact on me since my sitemate (read platonic husband) is in this group. I was worried when I first moved here that Kenji and I would not get along. Of course this didn't happen and we have become great friends. I'm really excited about having a new sitemate (Dylan, I'm sure you'll hear about him soon) but I'm sad that Kenji is going to be leaving. And just like at the end of high school, this time is full of goodbyes, parties and questions (that I'm sure they are tired of answering) about what will come next. Most of the group is doing some sort of traveling before eventually ending up back in the states, although a few are either staying here and looking for jobs or going to some other far off land. The first of them left last week (I miss you JK!) and there is a big group leaving this weekend. Kenji won't leave until the middle of June, but that seems to be coming faster every day.

The difference between when my seniors graduated and the group leaving now is that my seniors (for the most part) all ended up back in Denver for a time (some of them went off again for grad school or jobs), but with this group there is a good chance that they will be far flung forever. This is not a bad thing really, it just means I will have lots of people to visit in the future . . .

Anyway, good luck to all of G10 on your next big adventure wherever that may take you and I hope our paths cross again someday . . .

As the year ends. . .

I thought I was done with this stuff when I finished college. . .

Becomeing a teacher means that once again, the end of may becomes a bitter sweet time of goodbyes and good lucks. The seniors graduating this year are among the best I've ever seen. They are mature and thoughtful and caring and intellegent and all around pretty good kids. So here's to the class of '07. Good luck in college and life beyond.

Okay, enough mushy stuff. Some of the teachers went out for a drink after graduation the other night. My weirdness at drinking with my former teachers (as I now teach at the school I attended not so many years ago) including the principal, has lessened over the past year, but not completely gone away. I remember the first FAC (Friday Afternoon Club) that I went to last year. I had been subbing for about two months and one Friday when I was at West, a few of the teachers asked if I wanted to go out for a beer. I get to the bar and this wave of self doubt washes over me. Even though I am 24 years old and I work with these people ever day as an equal. . . they were my teachers in high school. I mean, can you imagine drinking with your high school principal? Changing roles (from student to teacher) is hard. Convincing the teachers to think of me not as a 17 year old is even harder. I have had to prove myself a lot. This felt a little bit like graduation for me too. I got to wear a robe and walk in with the teachers- the kids even call me Ms. Lipman and I don't mind. Growing up? Something like that.

P.S. It's true- the teachers go out after school and talk about the kids; who we love , who we hate; who we want to throw out the second story window during 7th period. Teachers really are the worst gossips in the world- next to high schoolers that is.

years gone by . . .

This week at my school, the seniors are doing their portfolio presentations. The portfolios hold all of their best work from the past four years: papers, projects, pictures, awards and whatever else they can fit into it. The presentation is their chance to talk about all the stuff they've done and showcase their work. As I've been watching some of these presentations, I have been thinking a lot about my senior year and my portfolio presentation and my friends. It got me thinking about how the two people that I was closest to then are no longer a part of my life and how sad that is.

I never thought at the time that I would be looking back 7 years later and wondering what went wrong with our friendships. With Derek, the answer is a little bit eaiser. He left DU, I went abroad, we drifted apart and then stopped talking all together. With Nichole, the situation is a bit more complicated. I never thought that anything could come between me and Nichole. We had been there for eachother through it all: bad boyfriends, school stress, parent issues. Even living 3000 miles away didn't tarnish our friendship. We talked often, hung out whenever she was home and I even went to visit her at Smith twice.

When she moved back to Denver, it was only natural that we would move in together. A lot of people warned me about living with friends: the fastest way to ruin a friendship is sex, the second fastest is becoming roommates. But is wasn't like that for us. We lived together great. I liked to cook, she liked to clean. Neither one of us had a lot of loud parties. Our movie collections complemented eachother without too many duplicates. We were good friends, but we had our own seperate lives. We always knew that we were there for eachother to talk to. Occasionally we would have some issues (don't even get me started on the whole Irene business), but overall we lived together well. Which is why the whole thing is still so upsetting to me. I don't even really know what happened. Now I know she was unhappy, but at the time, she didn't confide in me about what was going on. She just left. After trying to get in touch with her about her bed, I haven't attempted communication. I know (from her blog and the grapevine) that she came home for Christmas and Spring Break. More than anything, I just want to know her side of the story. Was she as hurt over the events that went down as I was? Does she ever think about me and what our friendship could have been?

I look back at that period at the end of our senior year with some degree of sadness, because I never though it would be quite like this. I hope that these kids stay better friends than we managed to.