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Graduation 2021
Jun. 12th, 2021 11:29 amWhew, we have successfully managed a graduation! This my first year teaching high school, and I had such an amazing group of students. The evening was emotional, and I cried, but it did not get off to a great start. We held the ceremony at a nice reception hall that had a beautiful lawn for our outdoor ceremony, with room to move inside should it rain. And it did rain at about 3 PM, but by the time the ceremony started, it was a lovely, breezy, clear evening. But that wasn’t what stressed me out.
The students asked me to give the faculty speech, and y’all, I was so honored, but also, I was really nervous. Not only because I don’t love public speaking, but because I would be up on a stage, being perceived! I am so freaking squishy. Most of the time I can forget it, but just having photos. I hate how I look so much, but I wasn’t going to say no to these kids. They worked really hard and planned the ceremony, so I wasn’t going to let them down. It would be fine.
It was (almost) not fine.
I took a cab to the venue, but for some reason, when you input the venue’s address into the taxi app, it takes you to a completely different location, as I found out when I was dropped off in the middle of a park on the opposite side of town. And there must have been a military base or facility because there was a fence with barbed wire on top and a young man in a uniform, with a gun, who did not speak English (except he knew the word shit when I realized what was wrong). He showed me on the map app where I actually needed to go (thank you Google translate and Russian keyboard). I had a meltdown and cried on the phone to my boss and cursed a bit and walked out of the park. I got another cab, put in the correct address, was almost again taken out to the forest, but I showed the taxi driver the building I needed from the staff email, and I’m not sure he spoke much English, but he DID figure out the right place, so we booked it through rush hour traffic and I made it with minutes to spare. Bless the driver, too, because he cranked up the AC on the drive because I was sweating and still crying a bit. I tipped him like 200% of the ride because I was so relieved to make it to the venue.
I think the speech went well. I was so nervous that I babbled a little bit at the very beginning, but I was able to get to my prepared speech with only a little quavering. The kiddos, bless them forever, looked so attentive and encouraging and I was so proud of them and happy to be there with them, even if I was uncomfortable.
We had six students graduating. They all could have spoken if they wished, but only Vitalii (who is secretly my favorite) spoke. He was so eloquent and earnest, and I did cry then. He also played some songs on his guitar, dedicating songs to his parents, and it was the most beautiful performance.
I’m still so emotional about the whole thing, so I’m not very eloquent myself, but being able to be with my kiddos, to honor their struggles and successes, and to share some camaraderie with my coworkers (and, I might say, friends) was something I really needed.
And thanks to our yearbook teacher, here is a decent pic of me giving my speech.
The students asked me to give the faculty speech, and y’all, I was so honored, but also, I was really nervous. Not only because I don’t love public speaking, but because I would be up on a stage, being perceived! I am so freaking squishy. Most of the time I can forget it, but just having photos. I hate how I look so much, but I wasn’t going to say no to these kids. They worked really hard and planned the ceremony, so I wasn’t going to let them down. It would be fine.
It was (almost) not fine.
I took a cab to the venue, but for some reason, when you input the venue’s address into the taxi app, it takes you to a completely different location, as I found out when I was dropped off in the middle of a park on the opposite side of town. And there must have been a military base or facility because there was a fence with barbed wire on top and a young man in a uniform, with a gun, who did not speak English (except he knew the word shit when I realized what was wrong). He showed me on the map app where I actually needed to go (thank you Google translate and Russian keyboard). I had a meltdown and cried on the phone to my boss and cursed a bit and walked out of the park. I got another cab, put in the correct address, was almost again taken out to the forest, but I showed the taxi driver the building I needed from the staff email, and I’m not sure he spoke much English, but he DID figure out the right place, so we booked it through rush hour traffic and I made it with minutes to spare. Bless the driver, too, because he cranked up the AC on the drive because I was sweating and still crying a bit. I tipped him like 200% of the ride because I was so relieved to make it to the venue.
I think the speech went well. I was so nervous that I babbled a little bit at the very beginning, but I was able to get to my prepared speech with only a little quavering. The kiddos, bless them forever, looked so attentive and encouraging and I was so proud of them and happy to be there with them, even if I was uncomfortable.
We had six students graduating. They all could have spoken if they wished, but only Vitalii (who is secretly my favorite) spoke. He was so eloquent and earnest, and I did cry then. He also played some songs on his guitar, dedicating songs to his parents, and it was the most beautiful performance.
I’m still so emotional about the whole thing, so I’m not very eloquent myself, but being able to be with my kiddos, to honor their struggles and successes, and to share some camaraderie with my coworkers (and, I might say, friends) was something I really needed.
And thanks to our yearbook teacher, here is a decent pic of me giving my speech.
