Last Day Sweetness

Halleluiah, the semester is over.

All the portfolios are in, all the papers are graded, and all the excuses are done (I know I haven't handed in a research paper, even though it was due last Tuesday, but, uhm, I'm pledging this fraternity... and, uhm, well, they don't let us do homework).

All I have left to do is pour myself a glass of wine, crank up Cat Stevens, and tabulate some grades. This is a fine day. A fine day that was made even finer by the following sweet student moments:

(1)

One of my students helped me carry the thick stack of in-class journals and final portfolios up to my office. Then he sat with me for forty-five minutes, just talking until I had to go to my last class of the day and he had to go take his World Civilization final.

"Shouldn't you be studying?" I asked him. Downstairs, half of his class was still in our classroom. After I forced them to do class evaluations and eat cookies I'd baked, they'd formed a circle and started quizzing each other on ancient civilizations. "Don't you want to be in on that study group down there?" I asked.

My student--sweet, sweet boy that he is--shrugged. "Nah," he said. "I think I'll just stay here." Then he paused. "Did I ever tell you that I showed my mom the first paper I wrote for you? She cried she liked it so much."

That hurt my heart it was so sweet.

(2)

During my last class, I was sitting out in the hall while my students worked through evaluations. A few minutes later I looked up and saw one of my students standing in front of me.

"Hi, Jess," she said.

"Hi," I said.

"I just wanted to come over and tell you thank you," she said. "So, thank you for this semester. I was really angry coming into your class because the college wouldn't accept my high school AP credit and I had to take this all over again, but then you made the semester so great I'm glad it happened that way."

I stopped breathing for a few minutes because that was one of the loveliest things anyone has ever said to me.