We inaugurated the beginning of the school year with a post by Cristiana Zambon (see The Good Teachers [1]) and now that the school year has come to an end, here’s another intense and emotional post by the same author.

With "My Last Day of School" by Cristiana Zambon and a beautiful quote by Martin Luther King, we wish a happy vacation to all students!

A special thanks to Cristiana and her “didactic” posts on her blog, Righe, quadretti e byte [2], which have accompanied us throughout the school year, sharing all of her stimulating and fun inventions.

My Last Day at School

Only those who work in the school know the mixture of emotions and memories that you experience on the last day amongst balloons, banners, drinks, holiday books and scorching temperatures. Teachers celebrate with their students despite the fatigue and threats of pranks.

On that day they shake off the burden of scheduling, testing, interviews, even controversies, and savour the beginning of the well-deserved break after the daily admonitions to “sit up straight” and “don’t run in the hallway!”

It’s time for a review of the year and reflections amongst colleagues on projects for the new year, which begins for teachers in September, not in January.

And there are last days of school that are really the last, if the teacher is changing school or retiring, or if the students are transferring or ending their school cycle. This, in fact, was my case.

So, I said goodbye to the students with which I worked for five years with a heavy heart and notwithstanding the affection I have for all these students, I was not as sad as had happened before. Maybe it’s because these children are the same age as my daughters and they often played together in the schoolyard. Or because I am the same age as their parents and it came natural to understand them and be understood by them. Or maybe by some strange alchemy, which only an expert in relationship dynamics could explain, it was a “good group” just like a “good wine.”

Or maybe it was just the sun and a great class that I had the privilege to see grow up so well with affectionate and careful parents, who without noticing it, taught me so much!

To say goodbye, I have chosen a quote by Martin Luther King, for a lifelong wish, holding back a few tears.

If you can’t be a pine on the top of a hill 



Be a scrub in the valley—but be 



The best little scrub on the side of the hill, 



Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. 



If you can’t be a highway just be a trail 



If you can’t be the sun be a star; 



It isn’t by size that you win or fail— 



Be the best of whatever you are. 



And when you do this, when you do this, you’ve mastered the length of life.

M.L.King