So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

I'm grading final exams, feeling wistful. After spending one and a half years with these people, you sort of grow attached to them, and when they transfer to a university, I am glad to see them go happy to see them so successful.

In this group here, we have future alumni and alumnae of Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Cal Poly, Cal State LA.  A few will be physicians and pharmacists,  some will be engineers, and one will be a math teacher.

The reality of teaching is that I will hear very little of their future successes.  They have lives, and their time here at Rio Hondo College will be a distant memory. 

Every semester when we all say goodbye, mixed in with the happiness I can't help but feel a little glum.

From The Digital Cuttlefish:

I suppose by this time in my career I should be accustomed to never seeing people again after becoming invested in their lives. Maybe I am, and the sadness is not strange, but simply an appropriate reaction to the situation. “Accustomed” does not mean “immune”.

NOTE: I originally published The Digital Cuttlefish's remarks  on May 24, 2012 under the title Student Barometers.