This is the End.

As a teacher, we have a different way of counting years.  June is the end and depending on where you work, August or September is usually the beginning. For example, when I say, "Next year, I'm going to ... " This means anytime between August and June. (Just in case you needed clarification).

June is a months of farewells.  We say goodbye to a roomful of children or young adults with whom we have shared many memorable experiences.  Now I feel like I am writing a graduation speech.  I’m not.

This is about endings and beginnings.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. ~ Semisonic

Teaching internationally I have been on both ends of the leaving/being left train.  We make friends and live out relationships that are commonly short-term and intense.  We spend weekends away and organize dinners, and every year there is a party for the people that are leaving at the end of the year (in June), and then another one for the people coming in at the beginning (in August). 

So this new month marks many ends.

But it also marks many new beginning.

As I bid farewell to some of the people I have met here in Mexico, I also feel heavy hearted for others that I know are leaving the city where they and their families have lived for years.  Farewells stink. 

People miss people. 

So as we approach those teary good byes, I wish us all, to look at the end of this year and this era, and embrace what’s next.  May it be bigger and bolder, allow you to thrive, really flourish.  May we all make the time to re-discover the elegance of paper and pen letters, and the simplicity of the postcard.  May we all set out to fulfill our lives, and that of others; to be of service.  

June just happens to be that month.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. ~Semisonic