PART 1 - Thursday Night (January 30th) - 6:51pm
It is the eve of my last day at my favourite place I have ever worked. While making cotton candy at Calaway Park in the 80's was fun, and over-serving Grey Cup champion Stampeders in Nick's Lounge was entertaining (and lucrative!), the past 5 and a half years at RJ Hawkey have meant more to me than I am going to be able to express here...
I bought Thank You cards. For every person. Beautiful ones! My plan was to pen a handwritten note to each person, telling them individually what I have appreciated and will remember about them. But now the task seems too hard. This is partly because I am sitting beside Brier, wondering how much more time he and I will have together. Days? A week? It's more comforting to sit on the floor and type, with my hip touching his, than to hunch over a table writing, even if we were in the same room together..... I am also reticent to write the cards because I am very tired. With every day that draws nearer to my taking over at Ralph McCall, my head fills up with more information, my body resists health (go away head-cold!) and the insomnia visits for a little bit longer. These people deserve better than the effort my current energy level could give them tonight. And the final reason I can't write them is because, given that these two paragraphs alone have taken me over an hour to type, there isn't possibly enough time! I can't stop crying! Yes, this is probably partially because of the previous two reasons, but also because I'm trying to picture what tomorrow will be like. There's no way I see myself getting through the day without needing a box full of Kleenex and without having to hope upon hope that no one captures my ugly-crying-face on their iPhone.
But tomorrow will be very special and meaningful, and I will have even more to say about all of the fabulous people at RJ by this weekend. I'm certain of it. So I will defer the task until then....
I woke up this morning as the principal of a different school, but felt so satisfied with the incredible day of closure that was yesterday. It was perfect. Really, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful day and I feel very blessed.
I met kids outside in the morning and wandered the school Friday with a continuation of the previous night's tears ready to flow at a moment's notice. Once or twice a few may have leaked out. But when it came time to spend a final assembly with everyone in my incredible RJ family, I think I held myself together pretty well (didn't I?). We got silly and had fun (human bowling anyone?), there were surprises (I arranged for Brier to make an appearance - in his new Radio Flyer wagon! - to mark his retirement as RJ's dog-with-a-job), there were kids saying the sweetest things on video, there was music (Gayla rewrote the words of the school song and the students sang!), and there was the presentation of the most meaningful piece of artwork I will ever receive. The afternoon was awesome. And then in the evening, the grown-ups gathered again where we ate, drank, visited, and sang and laughed....and laughed....and laughed (if you were there - you know what I'm talking about!). There was even another amazing gift. Wow, it was just a perfect day! There aren't enough thanks; and thanks aren't enough anyway.
Since this blog is supposed to be about the important people in my life, I want to devote some words to gushing about them. It is only because of the people at RJ Hawkey that I even feel remotely prepared for this next chapter in my career. I hope to lead in the example of what they have taught me: to always value excellence, to honour professionalism, to take risks, to listen longer and harder, that we gain energy from laughing together, that little kids are ridiculous sometimes but all so worthy of our time, attention and love, that I can mix leadership with friendship and that no challenge is too big when we focus on it together. Thank you to everyone for their honesty, hard work, time, talent and tears. You are an incredible group of people. From Karen and Gayla and Jackie - who have been at RJ longer than they are probably comfortable with me referencing, to Sarah - who has only been there for about 20 minutes, from all the great teachers I have worked with in past years, to the incredible support staff we would be paralyzed without, you are an awesome, amazing team. I thank you so sincerely for the almost six years I spent with each of you. I plan to keep in touch and hope to hear that you are always taking care and looking out for each other.
I received so many lovely notes and cards, several with wonderful quotes. My favourite:
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~Winnie the Pooh
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