Goodbye….

Mr. Paul had been giving Jasmine a world of encouragement and she, she stretched up the way a kitten does when it enjoys the love that is feeding its wild young body. She loved every bit of it. Mr. Paul gave her so much positive reinforcement, she was tickled by each word.

On this Friday morning Mr. Paul walked in with his upper lip buried between both levels of teeth. Bottom teeth were reaching forward to nibble over the skin that fed his lip into this show of anxious display.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Paul?”, Jasmine immediately inquired before he could even near the whiteboard that he ritually wrote on as the tiny class of what was going to be three students finished shuffling in. Jasmine wondered what bothered him on this day, with concern she asked again, “what is it?”

“Jazz… I need to share something…. with our whole class.”

Mr. Paul now looked out & caught a sense of how students were feeling. He examined their posture and stood tall with hands clasped behind his back.

“Let me just jump right into it…. …. Ummm….

-I want you all to know that I really care about you…. …. …

~You all know that, of course…”.

Then, he looked at each student …. Jasmine had the longest expression & although she could hardly hold her head up, she did.

She looked at him. “Uhhhh, what is it?” She blurted into the room with an urgency. Her tone sparked a response.

“Well…”……. “Ok…”

“I am struggling to get this out …”. Feeling as if his feet were stuck, he propelled himself forward and shared, “I took a new teaching job”.

All eyes sunk to the floor. Mr. Paul stopped. The room grew quiet & now…. He let his eyes dart left.

“Yeah, I’m going to be moving. …”. He felt a punch straight into his chest and then his gut absorbed the impactful blow.

Breaking what became a cloud of discomfort—

“Goodness….” …. “Does anyone want to say anything? …

~or shall we take some quiet time for writing now?..”

“Awkward, terrible…. Ohhhhh… and really, really …. Hard to think about leaving ….

Also…. I am so proud of each of you.

I’m so amazed by your spirits.”

He quieted for a moment, then he spoke out, “listen… listen…. You all change my perspective on the world.. the way you move through challenges, I don’t know anyone anywhere who wakes up and faces this world with as much courage as you all.”

By now a moisture, a dampness that often swelled around the windows of the school area was completely encircling the eyes of each student in the room. They’d grown tired, not immune to adults leaving them. This was not what they hoped to hear from Mr. Paul.

They hated this … hated hearing it & wanted to never hear those words for as long as they breathed.

“Ohhhh…. …”

A sigh of dread was a synchronous chorus that passed through the room, collapsing on the heavy shoulders of Mr. Paul.

It resounded, the thick emotion was shared by each of the students.

“Well…. Mr. Paul, congratulations, you’re a great teacher.” Jasmine finished saying just as she collapsed on her desk.