Clap Out

I'm still on moratorium, but I'm just copying from an email I sent my traveling boyfriend, so this doesn't really count...right?

They do "clap out" on Wednesday this week. Clap out is a school tradition. During the very first day of class for the first year class, all the other students in school walk into their class and clap them in and let them know how happy we are that they are a part of our community - and every spring we clap out the graduating class.

I've cried for the past 3 years as the people I started and studied with have graduated through me and I can't believe I have my clap out coming on Wednesday. I've studied here for 7 years. When I first started I only wanted to do 4 years, but after I got cancer, I had to add another year to my program (I didn't take time off, but I had to lighten my load the first year after surgery and couldn't take some classes due to physical restrictions) and then I decided to do the Chinese program, adding another 2 years. Seven years of blood, sweat, tears, but also laughter, love and stronger community than I ever expected.

These people and this place have been have been a part of my life and are inseparable in my memories of losing my father (I found out about his accident at school) and my illness. I also remember being a part of significant parts of others lives at this school - marriages, divorces, innumerable births, my friend's miscarriage of twins, the death of an instructor's wife, losing a beloved instructor, the sudden death of a major figure in our profession and even the suicide of a classmate. A lifetime in seven years . Definitely a lifestyle...as excited as I am to leave school, with all it's restrictions and protections, and start the next phase of my life, I recognize that I've got some grieving to go through because it'll never be the same again.