farewell

Last night was the night of the Farewell Dinner. All the leaving students, mature students and staff make leaving speeches at this formal dinner held for the whole school. This year there were 37 people leaving, which is a lot for any given year, and it took more than three hours to get through all the people saying something. Each year it humbles me, hearing all these wonderful people speak about their year or years here. I always feel like I haven't got involved enough, never get to know enough of them, don't spend enough time at the school. The students live such an intense and unique life here, close together and learning about themselves at a terrific speed.

There's no comparing to that really, but I still set myself the challenge each year to push myself a bit more out of my comfort zone. I run and hide as often as I can, feeling awkward and out of place with all these people around. There is always something going on and opportunitites present themselves to learn something new and I am mostly too scared to take advantage of it. I learn lots on my own, but I would like to learn about sharing time and experiences with others more. In any case, there are several students I did get to know somewhat and this is their last day, so I am off now to hand out hugs. Take care.