Yesterday Once More

I never believed that time would go by faster in my third year on JET. Past third year ALTs told me it would but I didn’t really believe them. Well, I was wrong. It hit me today just how fast this year has gone so far. I was at Uchigo First JHS in class 3-5 (3rd year, class 5 equivalent to grade 8 in Canada). They are probably the most outgoing class that seems to really enjoy my presence. They were making an English poster with goodbye messages for their upcoming graduation in March and I was helping. I was standing there, surrounded by 15 year olds, Carpenters playing in the background (have I told you how popular the Carpenters are in Japan? This particular Japanese teacher loves them) and realized that it was the last time I’d see them. These are students that I’ve known since they were in first year of JHS (grade 6) when I started. It made me realize that now it’s only two more weeks of JHS until graduation and March Vacation. I also feel that maybe my presence in the class did make a difference, if only a small one or only for a day or two.
It all started as the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) and I were walking into the room. The students saw through the door window that I was coming to their class today and I saw the most outgoing boy (one half of a twin, so lets call him Twin Boy for sake of the discussion) smile and kind of cheer and clap. In the last class I had with these students, they were performing skits and Twin Boy’s group did a skit about buying baseballs. At the end of class Twin Boy wanted me to sign his baseball. At the time I felt a little weird about it but I signed it anyways. It is popular in Japan for students to want our signatures. In today’s class, after about 10 minutes, from my spot in the back of the room I noticed that Twin Boy had put the baseball on a little stand on top of the blackboard with my signature facing the front and in English on the board it said “ look at this”. It just made me laugh inside and be thankful for my experience here. I am actually going to miss these students. I've never felt like I got satisfaction from Junior High School visits but now I know I do. I only have two more schools where I teach the 8th grade so I’m going to remember to carry my camera so I can catch these little moments in time. Maybe I should’ve got that students signature. His grad message for the poster was “Watch for me on TV, I’m going to be in the Major League!!!”Good Luck Twin Boy!!