11 Days.....Soak It Up!

So I officially have 11 days left in Tulsa.... I can't believe it.This has been my home for six years.

For the past couple months I have had a little list of things I want to do in town before I leave. Here it is: (the ones with the word check next to them have

been completed)

1. Go to a Drillers Game check (but i want to go a

gain on fireworks night)

2. Run on Riverside 3 more times.

3. Go to the Admiral Twin Drive In

4. Go the the Great American Flea Market

5. Read book outside Coffee House on Cherry Street while drinking watermelon ice tea check

6. Go to the center of the universe....( I can't believe I still haven't been there.)

7. Go visit my friends at Dolce Vita Coffee shop check ****(While I tried but apparently they closed down. I was really sad. They are a wonderful couple.)

8. Eat at Lanna Thai one more time.

9. Go thirfting. Check

10. Walk around ORU just for old times sake. (Yea I know that is cheesy, but it won't be so close anymore!)

11. Go inside that cool vintage furniture store JOZ and dream I could afford to buy something.

12. Take pictures with as many Penguins as possible and take a picture of that big tooth outside that one dentist's office.

13. Spend as much time as possible with the people here that I love and have grown attached to.

You know who you are! More to come on that topic.......

14. These are the things I wish I could do but probably won't happen..... go to a Tulsa Hockey Game, go line dancing one last time, go to some kind of even at the BOK, see Garth Brooks randomly, go to a concert at Cain's, eat at that cute Italian restruant on Cherry street and visit bricktown in Oklahoma City.

Hopefully I can finish the list! We shall see!!! :)

Blank Bulletin Board

Friday June 3, 2010

was my last official day as a teacher at Jones Elementary School.

It was very bittersweet.

I felt like I spent the whole week saying goodbye. Packing up my classroom and cleaning things out. Some of my students did not show up the last day of school. I never even got to say goodbye.

I am sure they will be fine. It is probably just me that needed the closure.

That morning I stood in my empty classroom looked at the blank bulletin board and just cried.

I thought so many things in those twenty minutes.

Did I really do all that I could for those kids? Will they remember the things I taught them about being kind and loving people. Will the next teacher love them as much as I tried to love them. Will this room keep growing happy memories? Should I be staying? I am running away or just moving on? Will the kids I work with next need me as much as these did? Will I ever see them again? Will I ever find out if they made it? Did I make a difference at all?

And then I didn't know what else to do.... I just prayed. I prayed that the room would continue to be a safe place for students. That God would be known in that room. That the next teacher would find strength and be encouraged. I prayed so many things.

Then... I felt a peace. I knew that my time was over there. That God has those kids in his hands. I did what I was suppose to do in that season. The fear of the unknown could not stop me.

Jones Elementary will forever be a part of me. The people I worked with are such beautiful people. I learned so much there. I will miss my Jones family and students so much.