6 Weeks

           Its late.  I should be sleeping.  I have classes to teach in the morning.  But I cannot get to sleep.  My mind just keeps spinning.  Six weeks left.  Six weeks and I will be boarding a plane and flying back to the States.  Flying home.  But leaving home.  What is it going to be like when I get back?  I am heading right back to camp.  Camp has been home.  Then I am headed back to Tennessee.  Tennessee has been home.  But what will it be now? 

            I am registered for classes this fall.  I am set up to have an apartment in Southern Village with three other girls.  I am starting to look into lining up a job for the fall.  But how do I go from being the full-time teacher to being the full-time student?  How do I go from being an adult, responsible for so many kids back to being just a college student responsible for only me?   

            My students are so much of my world right now.  I cannot walk anywhere without having at least one of my kids calling out hello to me.  I have girls that will turn around and run back to school if they forgot to give me a hug on their way out the door.  I have kids that bring me flowers on a regular basis.  Almost every time I leave the house, there are some of my students in my guava tree trying to get the fruit that is currently in season.  If I am not in school with my kids, I am grading their papers or working on lesson plans or reading books about how to help them better. 

            In just six weeks, I am leaving everything that has become home to head back to what has always been home.  There are many things that I am so excited about!  But so many things I dread leaving.  I want these last few weeks to go so quickly but at the same time, there is just not enough time.