The last days at the Dan Khun Thot School
The very last day at Dan Khun Thot school was a very special day. When I was leaving previous semester I knew it would be hard to leave for good. And it really was. I had not been so emotional for a while.
I wanted to give my pupils something special before I left. I always gave them something either at the beginning or at the end of a semester, usually a sweet treat. But this time I wanted something that would last. My first idea was to give them friendship bracelets but I didn’t manage to find such a high number. And so then it occurred to me I could make farewell videos for them. After all, they also made videos as an English project.
I came up with the idea on Wednesday evening, two days before the end of the semester. Imagine that I hadn’t made a video before and I didn’t have a video making software either. I was learning everything while I was making the first video. It took me all night. I went to sleep after 5 am. Crazy teacher, right?! But I made it. The first one was for the fourth grade. Making a second video was so much easier. Eventually, I made videos for the second, third and fourth grades. The pupils I had the best relationships with.
When I played the videos, the pupils laughed upon seeing some of the funniest moments. However, the videos also made some of the pupils cry. It took me by surprise. I wanted to make something special, something that would make them remember me. But I certainly didn’t want to make them cry. Some pupils got really emotional. In each of the three grades. Seeing it happen, I had a hard time containing myself. When the pupils, who you love so much, are hugging you and are crying with their face buried into your shirt, it’s heart breaking and it’s really hard to control your emotions. Eventually, I had to release them. I started crying myself. And on Friday, the last day, I left the school crying. Just like I had told my friends a few months before that.
You can find the videos I made at the end of this post.
There was a time when teaching outside Europe was a dream. This dream came true in late 2018. But it had never crossed my mind how strong I’d feel about the children I was going to teach.
Although teaching in Thailand was a real challenge which had left me washed out, it still was a dream come true. An adventure. A valuable life and work experience. A roller coaster of ups and downs. It was a journey with incredible moments with amazing children that I will cherish forever.
I knew I had to leave but it’s unimaginable that I will not see the smiling faces any more and experience the good things that teaching in Thailand was giving me.
I will miss the faces. I will miss the many smiles. I will miss the kid’s excitement when they saw me or when I was going to teach them. I will miss all the giggling in the kindergarten when I did silly things. I will miss students’ competing to help me carry my things to and from their classrooms. I will miss giving them stamps and stickers in their notebooks or on their shirts when they did well. I will miss the coffee shop, my safe haven, where I escaped when the noise was unbearable. I will miss smiling at the kids and greeting them while on gate duty.
But above all, I will miss all the warm hugs, cuddles and kisses I was given. I’ll miss you kids.
Goodbye Dan Khun Thot school.
Before you watch the farewell videos, here are some messages the kids sent me after I had left. It made me miss them even more.
