Last days at High Springs!

Yesterday was the last day of my internship. Wow, wow, wow. Adorable and slightly heart wrenching. Even though I am sure the children will forget me, in the last minutes when they were crying and saying goodbye I felt like I had all of the appreciation and love that I could ever hope from a job. Mrs. R had them go around and say one nice thing about us and some of them were a little funny, like when one kid said, "Well... bye! High five!" Some were sad, like when one boy said, "I don't like it when people I have known for a long time leave me". I happen to know his parents are getting a divorce, so that made me really sad. I started to tear up when he said that, and when the girls noticed that three or four of them started crying too. They quickly forgot why they were crying though when we walked them to lunch, so I am confident that their fragile emotional psyche is going to be okay. Mrs. R was generous and I am going to miss how kindhearted she is. It's rare to meet someone so... nice. It's kind of a cop-out to call someone "nice" but thats just really what she is. Nice. Sweet as honey.

I got an orchid plant, some cards, drawings, a gift card, a candle, and a laminated class picture. I am going to start a teacher book and put drawings and cards and things in there, so I am excited about that... you will find me in the scrap booking section of Michaels if you need to reach me in the next.. millennia. Kids are so generous and so pure- even if they do claim to love grand theft auto (whose parents let that happen, btw?)

Yesterday Meg, Meg, and I hung out with Dr. Zeig for like an hour after class and she invited us to help her at a benefit that happened today. Me and Meg N. were able to go, and it was wonderful. Zeig is a representative for Kelly's Kids, a clothing store that operates like pampered chef parties, and they donated kids clothes for a fashion show that happened at the end of the benefit. The benefit was raise money for cancer research at Shands. These children were incredible. They had been through hell and back and still had a smile on their little faces. Even more shocking was how positive and kind their parents were. They certainly did not walk around with an overwhelmed, defeated 'oh, my life' look on their faces AT all, which I thought a parent of a sick child must look like. Instead, they were strong and positive. It was wonderful to see. The clothes were adorable; everyone looked adorable decked out in plaid and polka dots. The girls who still had hair wore large bows, but when it came time to walk the runway the show coordinator gave them a sailor hat to wear. They were slightly disappointed to cover their large, colorful bows :)

Zeig is a baller, by the way. I totally want to be like her when i'm in my thirities. Mostly because she teaches/researches exactly what i am interested in (literacy) and somehow still affords a nice car. Living the dream haha. I do plan to follow through on getting a car sometime in the next two months and I am SO thrilled. CALL ME, OC WHITES.

:) Like the cheesy, chalk-colored shirts claim: Life is Good.