Operetta

This week was the school's operetta, and although it was the completely cheese-tastic "High School Musical" of Disney fame (keep in mind previous years have included West Side Story and the Akido...so this is a little breaking of tradition...it is, after all, called an Operetta...), it was great to watch my kids band together like they did.

I was at school for most of the week, helping out, even though I didn't have an "official" job. I became the make-up, back-stage, "OMG Ms. R I AM SCARED" person. I didn't ever understand parents before, how they could sit in the audience and cry. "I'm not doing anything amazing," I'd think to myself, but for the first time, the roles were reversed. Today, watching one of my students sing the part of Gabriella, I almost started crying. I was so proud of them. Completely overcome with how much potential they had and how much beauty they carried inside of them.

I realized how little time there is before the end of the year and how they're going to go into the world and how much I wish I could have given to them. I hope that somehow, in some way, something is different because I worked with them, tried with them...yelled at them and laughed with them.

They're great kids, and the realization that I probably won't teach 8th grade next year is fairly devastating. I love my fifth graders, but I love this class of them. They're brilliant students and I'm in love with their curiosity and their brains. But, I can't imagine it being the same. I just can't.