Next year will be my 20th reunion... SCARY! I can't believe that I've officially been out of school longer than I was in it.
Today marked a rather special event for me - the first Valedictory that I have ever organised. 20 years ago, it was me sitting in those seats. Today, it is me standing in the background, organising and directing.
This was also a special event for me as this was the matriculation of the Gd 8s who started at the school in the same year I started working there. To them, I have always been at the school. There are some special kids (as there are in any year) in this group, but all the more so because I've walked the entire road with them through their high school years.
I have sat through, including my own, 13 valedictory services. As long as I continue to work in a school, I have another 11 years to go before my eldest child sits in those chairs, and a further 4 years until my youngest does - by then, a total of 28. This service was my aunt-in-law's (who happens to work at the same school...) 28th... AT THIS ONE SCHOOL! To me, 28 feels like such a HUGE number of services to have attended.
As the grade head who spoke today pointed out, there is a lot of maths in today's date. Today is 12/10/2012. The matrics are grade 12. Grade 12 used to be known as Standard 10. If you add up 2 + 0 + 1 + 2 = 5, which is the number of years one (usually) spends at high school. Pretty cool, eh?
And so turns another year in the circle of life... another group of prefects and RCL appointed... another group of Gd 12s move off into the big wide world... and yet, for those of us left behind, life goes on as it always has: lessons continue as normal from Monday. In many respects, it feels like nothing much has changed.
"She will always carry on.
Something is lost, but something is found.
They will keep on speaking her name.
Some things change, some stay the same."
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