卒業式 ('sotsugyo shiki', graduation ceremony)

We had graduation Tuesday. It was rough but wonderful. This group of seniors were a big reason why I stayed for a second year. They really made me love my job, and made me excited to teach them. They are the class that struggled through projects about the environment, discrimination, debates, segregation in Japan and abroad...all new topics for me to teach, all very exciting. They kept surprising me with how well they could articulate their individual opinions in English, and how interested they were in talking about things outside of class. It was moments with this group of kids that made me consider being a teacher. They were very special to me, and if I flit through their minds occasionally in the years ahead, and they use correct grammar when speaking English, I will be a happy woman.

I forgot how solemn a graduation ceremony is in this country, so I was playing up the excitement the day before, and this troubled some teachers. The way the ceremony is approached, being excited means that you are happy to see them go. The appropriate response to graduation is sadness, and loneliness.
No worries, I was producing those responses in spades when it came time for them to leave. They inspired me so much, and watching them go just magnified the reality that in 4 months, I'll go too. That. Is not a nice thought right now.

Journal Entries regarding graduation are being graded as we speak. I thought this one was priceless:

"Graduation
I hope that this season is a season of separation, and you say, right? Graduation is also a typical event of separation, isn't it? I'm interested in whether this year's graduation ceremony is a high school and is what kind of one by a first graduation ceremony.
I realize that one is sending school life one after another and also graduates in other words is plowing to the separation. It's very regrettable to part from everyone, isn't it? While you can enjoy yourself by everyone now, so I'll enjoy myself while you can enjoy yourself by everyone now."

Is it wrong that I understand exactly what he's trying to say? At the end there, I think he's just repeating himself to try to reach the 90 word minimum requirement of the assignment. He uses other tactics in other entries to reach the same end, like saying "I was very very very very excited! I think it is very very very very cool!"

In other news: Spring is in the air. The skies are clearing up and new adventures are being planned. So many of my friends are falling in love, both here and at home. It's making this world a beautiful place to be. (After a terrible week of sinusitis, and watching all first three seasons of 'The Wire', which can put a person in a really dark place, I'm excited by all the glow.)

Let's enjoying waking up.