Like Pulling Off a Bandaid... Friday, July 22

Well, I did it. I experienced my last day of work at both the academy and the daycare.
My time at the daycare concluded with a surprise going away party during class time with my mini-Koreans. Several parents had said their goodbyes to me in the morning, one of which asked me "Honestly, why are you leaving?" to which I told her a simple condensed version of the truth.

It was pain stakingly hard going through the day, knowing that I'd be leaving them for good today but I did it. And I did it without sheding a tear, that is until they threw me a surprise party. The children and my co-teachers had made a special book for me by which every child in my class made a page. On one side of the page was their picture and on the other side they had written a message and drew a picture. I was okay with them one-by-one reading out their messages to me but it was when my co-teacher told them to hug me after presenting their particular page that got me all teary eyed. I tried my hardest to be strong, if not for my own sake but for my mini-Koreans, but it was brutally hard. Many of my mini-Koreans cried. I felt so touched but so sad to be leaving.

"I'm leaving" I reminded myself. I didn't want to leave but I had to. Because of a simple break in contract which administration will never admit to I put a lot of children that mean so much to me, as well as myself, through pure heartache today. I'm still very disappointed with the head manager and especially my program manager, a person who should have been more sportive of me rather than the main discouragement in my job that he quickly evolved into. Professionally speaking, he owes me an applogy. It's much overdue and I've given up waiting for it but I guess that's the price for I pay for not being a fellow drinking buddy or online gaming buddy with my boss.

Sounds bitter yes, but I am not bitter. I'm disappointed and sadden. Oddly enough my disappointment with management only pushed me to work harder, like the geek in high school who went from geek to sheek just to punk off their bully. Everyday since that brutal phone conversation and then again after they broke the contract I've woken up and wanted to quit my job because of not feeling supported or appreciated by upper management. They really let me down but I didn't quit. That'd only give them the upper hand and I knew it'd only hurt myself and those I work hard for -- my co-teachers and mini-Koreans. Hurting them was the last thing I wanted to do because they've been nothing but amazingly supportive, caring and dedicated.

Upper management will never fully understand nor fully appreciate just how great of a team they have at the Bundang location and that's a shame because they have some really, really awesome workers there who continually pour their hearts into their work. I too was one of them and it broke my heart having to say goodbye today.

I try very hard not to mix business with pleasure but it was definitely a huge pleasure being with my mini-Koreans and I will miss them so much. There's one girl in particular who I had anticipated it being extremely hard to say goodbye to today. For the past couple of weeks I've been struggling with this fact. Today she totally broke down during my goodbye party and I couldn't look at her. Her eyes swelled up with tears and then they flowed. They flowed for the next hour and a half. Together we played our usual tag game outside and for a brief moment she forgot all about the fact that I was leaving but then the knowledge of the parting returned.

My time at the daycare came to a sweet ending with Snickers showing up. He joined us for lunch time and then sat with me in the teacher's room while I cleaned up. Both my co-teachers presented to me a card and small gift of appreciation. I gave them a hug, told them I'll miss them but I know this won't be the end of this great friendship. I really admire the two co-teachers I have and have nothing but kind words and lots of support for what they do and who they are. I was a bit sad that my director wasn't in today for me to say goodbye because I will miss her too. Honestly, I will miss everyone who works at the daycare, even the ladies in the kitchen who day-after-day cook up a mean, mean lunch that's so delish!!!

As for the academy, we had a school quiz game today and I gave my class a pizza party to say goodbye. I think what I'll miss most about my part time academy job is the fact that everyone is so relaxed and easy-going. I never felt pressured to do anything so that was my motivation that pushed me to do more. Whether it was staying late to print out and assemble a large board game or writing letters each week to my students, I felt a lot of freedom with my job and my boss really allowed me to be as creative as I wanted. The only real restriction being that I had to use a certain textbook but that was expected.

My academy boss called me into the office before I left. He thanked me for all my hard work and told me that if I ever wanted extra work to give him a call. He said he was sad for seeing me go but was sure we'd meet again. Nice guy but a really great man to work for.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Why is there always someone who has to spoil things?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
-- Author Unknown