Hangover
Sitting in the airplane, headphones in, staring at the wings as we ascend into the clouds. The wings reflect the light of the clear sky, decorated with spots of clouds and the wing seems almost transparent. And then it hits me: it’s over.
ETA4 2015 is over, and man was it a ride. Same program, but a completely different feeling from last year. It’s hard to really encapsulate all the emotions I have been feeling the past couple days as I’ve spent my last moments and meals in Hue, but I can say that it was not easy. I’ve become so emotionally attached to the people I’ve met this year – students and TAs. I don’t know why, but this year, I’ve even become emotionally attached to the person I am able to be while I am in Hue. A teacher, a mentor, and a friend.
It’s a life style that I will miss. I’ve told a few people already, but back home in the US, it’s a constant fight to balance so many different aspects of my life. School, work, entrepreneurships, athletics, and extracurricular activities. Between all of those personal obligations, I find myself spreading myself too thin all too often, as if I rarely get the time to just sit down and enjoy a meal or conversations with some good company. But here in Hue, being a part of ETA4, I have one job. One goal, one purpose to my being there. And that is ensure that whoever decides to come into my classroom receives not only an education that is fun, but an experience and advice that they will be able to take with them for their entire life. In Hue, I am able to dedicate 100% of my being to this cause and it has become something I truly love. I don’t feel myself spread too thin (except when hanging out with my students), and I don’t have anything on my mind other than how to make this experience the most enjoyable and memorable for them. I really do love what I am able to do here and the impact I am able to have on these students because I see the growth that they all go through. Becoming more confident has been a result of participating in ETA4 since its inception in 2008, but this year I decided to introduce to my students various social justice issues that I feel really helped open their minds as people and citizens of this Earth. More on that later~
This summer, even though I had many more students than last year, I feel closer to them. Even though my morning and afternoon classes are almost complete opposites in personalities. We have the young buffalos of my morning class, younger in age but with plenty of energy and enthusiasm to compensate. A rowdy bunch of adolescents that will be crazy and hard to control, but will always say or do the darnest things to put a smile on your face. MY old buffalos of my afternoon class, college students who are actually there to practice English. Receptive of most things I say and understanding of why some boring parts are essential to the games and activities we play later in the lesson. Both classes reflect different personalities, but I love them both the same <3
As a general statement for this summer, it’s been one that has been the happiest 5 weeks of my life, to add on to an already amazing 2015. I can only hope that the rest of this year will treat me as well as this first half has.
