Sunday, November 25, 2012

Goodbye

Today is the last day I will be in Singapore. It's not really sunk in yet and it still seems really surreal. I've said emotional goodbyes to my school and my friends and I'm almost ready to go. My single box for shipping has been picked up and most of the things on my to-do list are complete. Now it's just a question of packing the last pieces of my life and getting to the airport tomorrow morning.

It's been an amazing, painful, exciting and lonely time. I've made friends and lost friends, I've seen parts of the world I'd only dreamed of and I've learned a lot about myself and the world around me. I've grown into a teacher and I've challenged myself to the limit of what I thought I was possible of. I'm incredibly proud of the accomplishments I've made.

It's time to go home though. It will be cold, I will be poor, I'm sure I will be in culture shock for a while. But there's truly no place like home. I can't wait to see my friends again and be back in the warm community of home.

I'm grateful to the kindness people here have shown me, the acceptance I have found and the inner strength it's taken me to get this far. It doesn't seem real that I will be leaving soon, and I don't know if it will for a few days. It feels like one life is ending and another is starting and there is sadness and excitement with that.

For now, goodbye Singapore and thank you for everything. I have seen beautiful things, painful things and a whole new world here. I see change coming to Singapore and slowly things in the education system here are getting better. I truly believe that Singapore is going to make it to their vision one day and I hope that I get to visit so that I can see it.