This is a very special time for a lot of university students. It is when their undergraduate degrees end and they start new stuff, you know like grad school or med school or gasp, they get a job or something.
It is a pretty special time for me as well. For the first time in my career I am taking a sabbatical. Basically I don't have to teach for a year, and don't have any mind numbing committee work service to do. I can concentrate on scholarly stuff, and play xbox oh and drink Pernod.
This year is also very special because we have a really great group of fourth year students. I am very proud of this group. I said goodbye to them today, and while I know I will keep in touch with many of them, some I honeslty probably won't see in person again. The neat thing is that through things like facebook I will see them again, and see them get married and have kids and careers and all of that stuff.
It is also the year my daughter graduates from Algoma and she was in that last class of mine. Today was probably the only time I ever actually ever made mention of it besides the standard 'you should all know that is my duaghter' disclaimer I make at the beginning of each term in a class she takes. I felt a strange mixture of sadness and pride when I talked about her and her two highschool freinds that are in the class. She has better grades than I ever did, and I fear she may be smarter than I am.... As an aside it is pretty cool that today is world autism day, as the day reminds me of Jonno as well. So this day is about both of my kids and always will be to me.
I just want to end by thanking this great group of people for allowing me to teach them for the last four years, and I guess for paying tuition.
Thanks guys.