Graduation Day

Graduation days come and go in the life of a high school teacher, but this year's ceremony was particularly sad for me. The kiddos who were 1st year students when I came to Japan and SIT back in 2008 are now leaving...after 3 years of classes together, these are the students who I have felt the closest to and who I have greatly looked forward to seeing on a day to day basis.

Yes, three years here. Three long graduation ceremonies. Yet, somehow, I still haven't managed to learn the words to our school song.

Who needs singing when there are inspirational and emotional graduation speeches to give...

...just kidding!! Had to have a photo opp with the ceremonial bonsai while waiting to dig into the free snacks from the PTA:

Seriously going to miss these students! Watch out Japan! These young adults are the future of your role in our international world:

Graduation time is also when all of the third year students get their yearbooks. Unlike in the States when you usually get a yearbook for each year of high school, 3rd years in Japan get a book detailing their entire 3 year high school career! It's pretty awesome. And expensive. Which is why I merely take photos of my most favorite pages rather than purchase a whole book for myself (I like to think of it as frugal memory-keeping):

And with that, the official school year in Japan is almost to an end. Yes, the other grades still have to take exams and attend a few extra "babysitting" classes to fulfill the men-in-suits's requirements, but after that a fresh, new school year will begin in April. Time here is starting to reel away EXTREMELY fast...only 4.5 months left to go!

To my students: おめでとうございます！　またね！