The next day, I went into work to meet with Tony. I was supposed to bring him a signed contract and instead, I refused to extend. I caused a huge uproar and my life was pretty miserable for my last two weeks. But after looking back at the way he handled it all, I know I did the right thing. He was completely unprofessional and I don't want to work for someone who behaves in such a poor manner. To write about all of the painstaking details would take weeks, so I'd rather sign off by saying I'm really going to miss my students. The poor kids were in complete shock. I had been with all of my classes for at least the past six months, which is actually unheard of at our campus because they like to move them around every few months. I had a great connection with them and we had really bonded over that time. Their parents were really happy with the way things were going and valued me and my skills as a teacher.
I'm especially going to miss my 2:30 pm class that I taugh every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We had the strongest relationship of any class and they just so happened to be my youngest students. They immediately all started crying and rushed over and latched onto me after I told them the news. I was not allowed to say anything to my students until my last day of class and so the shock was a little overwhelming for them. They kept asking why I didn't let them know sooner and why I was leaving. They even asked me if I could stay one more day with them so we could have more of a proper goodbye. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. Then one of my students Julie asked if we could meet for lunch tomorrow (Saturday). I had a million things to do as it was my last weekend, but I offered to meet this class for ice cream in the afternoon to have more of a proper goodbye.
The following day, everyone but one student came and we went to Baskin Robbins and shared 3 banana splits, which they had never had before. It was probably the cutest thing ever watching them scarf down something that I consider to be American. They were so excited to be with me and I felt the same about them. We held hands the whole time and they climbed all over me like I was a jungle gym. Soobin and Julie gave me gifts and cards with their contact information as well as a picture to never forget them. They really are the sweetest and cutest Korean children on the planet. Oh am I ever going to miss them!!
After our little ice cream adventure, I carried on with the rest of my errands that day. It hit me for the first time that I won't ever be talking about homophones, past participles, future verb tenses, subjects, nouns, or articles again. I won't be lecturing science lessons and teaching Korean students about the United States government or holidays in social studies class. Its just back to the old grind working as a party planner. But I couldn't be more excited and happy to go back to "reality" and move on with my career. Teaching in Korea was a great experience but I know that is not what I want to do in life. I guess it was just one more thing to check off the list!
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