At the end of September, after my father passed away, it was really, really hard to come back to Japan. Even though I love my job and students, the thought of leaving my family and friends behind was overwhelming. Despite the support of my supervisors, I knew that just getting through the day without breaking down would be a struggle. I wasn't at all looking forward to just jumping back in and pretending like everything was normal.
My first day back to work was on a quiet Saturday morning. All the staff had gone to the other campus to observer other teachers, but I had gotten permission to use that morning as a work day instead to catch up on writing lesson plans. When I came into the office, I was surprised to find a stack of construction paper sympathy cards hand-made by all the third grade students.
Reading these touching cards was the perfect way for me to ease back into the working world. I later found out that the other third grade teacher, Greg, had suggested that the students to write these cards. I've always enjoyed working with Greg because he is a nice, funny, skilled teacher. His thoughtfulness at organizing this little activity made me appreciate him even more. Even now I can't adequately express how deeply those sweet cards touched my aching heart. Thank you, Greg, for being such a thoughtful guy.
Now that I've shared about how much those cards meant to me, I thought I would share some of them with you (the images have been altered to protect students' privacy).
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| This was Kris' favorite card - for obvious reasons! |
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| "...We are praying for your father, but don't be sad. Your father is alive in heave and in your heart. If you get sad you can hear fathers voice in your heart. Don't forget your father. You can't see but he is alive and doesn't forget us..." This one still makes me cry when I read it. Out of the mouth of children comes truth. |
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| Most cards had pictures of hearts or of me and the student. This card cover is just epic and made me smile! Please notice the 3-headed dinosaur (labeled with the student's name) eating the flying "America" dinosaur and also the moon man(?) standing on a flying saucer (?) saying "I miss you!" |
