"Na" means "yes"

Yesterday was my last "official" day with students at Munster.  For those of you who don't know, and most people know at this point--I won't be returning to teaching this fall. 

This is for a lot of reasons, and I don't want to get into it right now because it doesn't matter.  It's been a really difficult year for me in a lot of ways, and I know that this is the right thing to do for my family. 

However, this week was a really hard one for me too, because no matter how much these kids annoy me...they are my second family, and I really do love them. 

Tuesday was our journalism banquet, and I was reminded  through all the senior recognition, staff reminiscing and senior byes how truly amazing these kids are--how talented, fun, passionate, and funny they really are.  I cried...more than was socially acceptable.

Wednesday, I had to tell them that I won't be returning next year.  It was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a long time, and I cried the entire way through my speech.  It was really hard, but they were really understanding, and supportive (which almost made it worse).

And then Thursday happened.  It's no secret that out of all my students--my Crier students are some of my favorites.  Thursday was the last time that this staff--one of the most celebrated, and award-winning staffs that Munster has ever seen--would be together.  We read a letter from one of the most verbose, emotional students I have ever known that brought even the largest and manliest of us to tears.  Then, they presented me with this box.  It was full of red starbursts, Dove chocolates, panera gift cards, a hand-made bracelet, a photo album, and a hand-written letter from each student on my staff. I wish I could fully explain what this means to me, but I can't.  The fact that these kids know me well enough to know how special each one of these items would be, the fact that they know that I only eat red starbursts, and sat that and picked out all of them from a bag...they will never know what that really means to me. 

It's acknowledgment of what I did for the past year, that when I left Finn it was for a reason.  That what I did meant something, not just to me, but to them too.  I can't explain how happy, sad, and overwhelmed it made me feel.

After that, we decided to do a bit of staff bonding, and we sat in a circle and dubbed in "Circle of emotion" time...where they talked about their favorite memories on staff, and then talked about what this staff meant to them, and how it shaped who they are as individuals.  I listened, and cried, and remembered how amazing these kids are.  It was great...and terrible all at the same time.

Now, you may be wondering about the title of this post, well one day last week, I was begging asking one of my students to make me these amazing cookies he makes (crownies).  I said "You told Finn that you would make them."
He responded, "I know, but I told Finn that I'd make chocolate chip cookies."
Me: "I know, but he asked me PERSONALLY for crownies."
Him:  "No, I said 'Finn, do you want chocolate chip cookies?' and he said 'Na' and 'Na' means 'yes'"

And I stopped in my tracks.  Because I am telling you with 100% certainty that there are very VERY few people who know that "na" means "yes."  It reminded me of what we are here at the Pub...an insanely dysfunctional family.  Full of crazies, and big opinions, and loud mouths, and a lot of fighting and a lot of love.

I don't think I'll ever love a group of students like I loved this one.  They are special, and I can't wait to see what they do.