» Bear with me, this'll be a long post. The last few days of Breakthrough were extremely hectic, and that's just on the business end of things. On the emotional end, it's been overwhelming and bittersweet. On one hand, I'm glad to be done with work and I'm glad that I no longer have to be around so many people all the time. I am completely exhausted. These past few days after setting up the apartment and getting ready for school (this is a retroactively published post) all I've been doing is hardcore catching up on sleep, often not getting up before noon. On the other hand, I miss a lot of people: advisees, students, fellow teachers, and friends. In feeling so, I've been procrastinating on the things I need to do in order to put together scrapbook pages of the notes and trinkets that remain of the summer (I lost my State Fair ticket stub! So sad!) And of course, I wouldn't be doing the experience justice if I didn't blog about it.
» One of the biggest highlights of my summer was hopping around Sacramento to get food with Mina. It is her life goal to eat at every restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The above is a "Hot Blonde" (Grilled organic chicken, Swiss cheese, spinach, avocado, cucumbers, tomatoes, roasted red onions, garlic spread, brown mustard and Pepper Plant sauce, panini pressed on sliced sourdough) from Dad's Kitchen. Mina, if you are reading this, know that I applaud you on your life-long quest, and thank you for letting me a part of it.
» Friday's celebration was the last official day of Breakthrough, but that wasn't the last time I saw the students. On Saturday, Breakthrough was treated to tickets to the Sac Republic soccer game vs. San Antonio. Mina, who's from Texas, rooted for San Antonio, while I was able to see two of my advisees one more time. After the game, we all went onto the field to take a photo.
» During Wrap-Up Week, two fellow teachers (my do-or-dye buddies whom I dyed my hair with!) went on a little adventure (more on that later ;) ). We also ended up at a cute little coffee shop at 11pm. I didn't get any great pictures, but I had a Mochaccino from the "unusuals" board, which was the most delightful treat.
» As a final treat, the faculty took one last FMH to the Old Spaghetti Factory. It just so happened that I was craving lasagna the day before, so it really hit the spot. The crowning glory of the meal was the drink I ordered: cotton candy limeade.
» On the very last day, after most people went home, a few TF's wandered around dazed on campus, not sure what to do with their lives. Mina was taking her advisees to In-n-out a few hours later, so we followed her and pranked her by pretending that we didn't know them. It was great fun, but after they left, we again had no idea what to do. I wanted to take some nice pictures of the sunset to commemorate my last day, so we drove up to the top of a parking structure at Sacramento State. We caught the most gorgeous orange hues, and grabbed some cool jumping shots, except that it was windy and my dress was not cooperating and I'm really bad at timing my jumps. It was a very satisfying way to feel closure for the program, in a way.
And then it was over. Really, truly. All I have left are rapidly fading memories, but I can't deny that Breakthrough has changed my life in so many ways. It'll take me a long time to digest it all, and even then there will always be new things I learn about myself from the things I did this summer. Here's to the next adventure, to live boldly, and go for my goals! ◊
No comments:
Post a Comment