Tis That Time of Year When We're Trying to Close Shop, But the Shop Keeps on Demanding. Ah, But It's Student Celebration Time and I Got a Two-fer Yesterday

I was frantically leaving an Academic Council meeting when I ran into three seniors: Delaney, Cara, and Alyssa, all seniors on the Women's Softball team who will be retiring to our graduate program, who happened to be on a photo-shoot in white dresses (a tradition at the University) outside of Bellarmine Hall as I scurried like a rat from one building to another where I was hosting a Celebration of Teachers and Teaching.

It put a smile on my face because I'm excited to celebrate student athletes: a pitcher, a catcher, and a 1st base(wo)man who happened to be academic all-stars, too. They come back for the 5th year, and I am lucky to have them in my graduate research course. I already have big ideas for them and can't believe they've already finished four years of college courses. Sad that they didn't make it as far as they wanted to go in the MAAC tournament but happy to see them supermodeling outside the campus hub.

I ran over to celebrate 26 student teachers, their supervisors, and the host teachers (including Tori who was once my student who is now hosting student teachers) in an evening program where the principal of Notre Dame High School spoke as a keynote. It was a great even and I was happy to see three of the English Education folks making it to completion after an exhausting semester of hard, unpaid, and relentless work at their host schools.

And this brings me to Tuesday, where back to back faculty meetings lead to a retirement celebration. I'm proud of Emmi, Eva, and Shane, who came out of nowhere last year as post-BAs looking to get their certification. They became my right and left hands for CWP and now they will be moving to the market.

I had all the students in attendance at last night's celebration except three, and I wanted to be there to applaud the incredible semester they just had (and to gift them autographed books of Youth World I got at Possible Futures last week. 

My crew looked good, but the over census was that everyone was extremely exhausted from the student teaching that just was (I remember, too, attending a similar occasion in Louisville in 1996 and coming to celebrations with bag under my eyes, the need for a bed, and the thought, "Celebrating this experience isn't the word. I need a vacation." The students juggle graduate courses and full-time, unpaid work.

Ah, but they made it. Always a great event at Fairfield University and if it wasn't for the traffic/construction on the way home...1.5 hours to go 4 miles...it would have been a perfect day.

You know it is the end of the semester when you simply can't wait until you have a second to mow the lawn. That will be this morning (fingers crossed). I hope.