The Letter I Wanted To Write.... WRITTEN 5/25/11

Tonight I had to write a letter of resignation from my job.
A job I've worked at for seven years.
A job that I've loved.
It had to be formal and impersonal.  I had to be professional.
But this is the letter I wanted to write.

Dear administrators and board,

I a writing to let you know that I am resigning from my position as art teacher.  I may be resigning, but I will never stop being a teacher.  I will never stop being an artist. 

I want to thank you for giving me my first job.  Thank you for providing me with some of my best friends.  Thank you for the students that taught me so much.  Thank you for a paycheck that bought my first house and allowed me to bring home my first son.  Thank you for an administration that never told me "no" when I had an idea, a vision, or a passion.  Thank you for pushing me to be better and challenging me to be patient.  Thank you for the years of $2 school lunches, and the snazzy plaque I got at five years of service.  Thank you for the summers off and the fall football games.  Thank you for giving me the Mac lab of my dreams.  Thank you for helping me get my MFA.  Thank you for the laughter at lunch and the personalities that I adored.  Thank you for allowing me to work under people I believed in and have ample amounts of respect for.  Thank you for shaping me into the adult I am today.  Thank you for allowing me to follow my dreams.

And thank you for denying me the 2 year leave of absense, because it will push me in new, challenging, and unpredictable directions that I would not have otherwise gone - a road I am meant to travel.

I hope that the next art teacher you hire is someone who will appreciate how awesome you are.  I hope he or she will appreciate the Mac lab and the new construction.  I hope they will appreciate their coworkers as I have.

This right here is the hardest part so far....because it isn't a "thing" - it is a part of me....a part that feels like a definite end.

Yours truly,

The art teacher in room 104.