A Drop of Tear as a Ticket to Travel the Outside World

When our class adviser announced that she will be resigning to travel and follow her dreams, to see the world outside her teaching sphere.

March 2, 2012

The class was roaring. A typical day. Then the lady in front started speaking. She was the adviser of this loud crowd. She let them all sit, then spoke. She was asking every student in the classroom for what were their reflections for the already-ending school year.

The class didn’t take the question seriously. Well, that’s how you would like to put it since they were all cracking jokes and laughing. But the teacher didn't mind. And that is because she knows that her beloved class is always like that. Happy.

The girl sitting at the top corner left when facing the blackboard was the first one to stand and give her answer. She said that she was happy and that the school year has been very good to her compared to the past school years she have had. The look on the teacher’s face was flat. But no one noticed it since the students were busy hooting and giggling. They were happy. They were innocent of the unsaid sadness. It was just another day for them.

It went on. One student even said that it was the best school year ever. While going on, the teacher noticed that the students were saying the same thing: it has been a very fun school year. She smiled. She was glad that her students are having fun under her hold. She was cracking jokes even! She was teasing her class that when this batch turns a level higher, leaving her in her old handled batch once the class was in, she will compete and won’t let her new students to lose against her present handled batch in terms of sports. Her personality is really like that. This woman is competitive especially when it comes to the said matter.

They were cackling, saying that if their batch turns a level higher, she should, too and become their adviser once again. The adored teacher wouldn’t give a lucid answer.

Her students loved her. Even her past students who already graduated from the school still remember and visit her while working. She wasn’t just another teacher. Her strict teaching, optimistic approach to life, her valuable words that go straight to the listeners’ hearts had crept up to her students.

Then she silenced her class. She said to them that she has an important news to tell, and that this was the first group of students to be told of the information.

“Miss, are you pregnant?” a girl from the back row joked. And the class went wild again.

The teacher merely smiled. The laughter of the class hasn’t completely vanished when she said, “I will be resigning.” And this is the part where the class went still.

She said words that can’t be vividly remembered by the girl from the back row who had recently joked. She looked around for reactions. She turned her head to the right and saw the nearest girl already tearing up, her handkerchief being pulled from her pocket. A few moments passed and then she felt it. She felt her tears wanting to come out, hence the stinging of her throat and eyes. She fought a bit hard not to cry and failed. She was locking her jaws, and pulling her head down so the others wouldn't see her break down. She hurriedly pulled her hanky from her pocket and wiped the tears on the corner of her eyes. The hotness she was feeling in her throat doubled up. She glanced at her teacher in front, listening once again to her words. Then she noticed that their teacher was already crying. Surely, seeing her students tear up made her more emotional.

“I love teaching. It’s my passion. But I have other dreams that I want to achieve.” The sensitivity and lightness present on the older woman’s voice caused her tears to come out again. She let a couple of warm tears dropped, the sensation prickling her cheeks.

“I want to travel.”

She focused her attention wholly on the teacher though occasionally glancing around. She wanted to hear the woman’s speech.

“I am used to being left by my students. And I thought that when I’m the one who will leave, it will be much easier. But I was wrong. It still hurts.”

“I love all of you.”

As her teacher continued to speak, she continued to contemplate her words. She was delighted that this woman on the platform loved them to this extent despite of few troubles they had caused.

The woman said that she won’t be staying at the vicinity of the city. She will be far away. To other country, even. It will be a long time before she comes back. Perhaps, the students in front of her had already finished studying. She wouldn’t know how long.

“You are the last section I’ll be handling. And when I step once again in this school after I come back, you will be the first people I will remember.”

The girl from the back row had never cried before over a teacher leaving. She has concluded that within the ten months of being with this joyful mentor, they have already put up the solid block of their relationship, and that they wouldn’t let it end. Relationships might fade away but it’s always there. Maybe left wobbly and unrefined. But they surely don’t vanish.

She thought that if her teacher is saying all of these things to her outside their beloved classroom, maybe she wouldn’t be this emotional. But in this situation, she was just another student from her class. And the inevitable departure hurt.

And it turned out that it wasn’t a typical day after all. Because from then on, time is going to meet its end.