Graduation
Today is graduation at the Junior High Schools in Ajimu. The Japanese school year is on a bit of a different time table. Students graduate in March, and the new school year starts in April.
This year's 3rd year (9th grade) students were 1st year students when came to Ajimu in August 2 1/2 years ago. Which means now that they are graduated, the schools student body has completely changed over from when I arrived. Which perhaps means I've been here too long :)
Granted when I arrived in August it was already in the middle of the school year, so I still can't say I've seen one grade completely through from start to finish, but pretty close. And wow, where did that time go?
I guess what they say is true: time does go faster as you get older. From the time I entered middle school to the time I graduated seemed to me like a lifetime in itself. But the time it took these kids to do the same thing has just flown by for me.
And it is amazing how much they developed physically during that time as well. When I first came here, they all looked like little kids. Now many of them look like young adults.
And I suppose I've gotten older over the time I've been here as well. When I first arrived in Japan at the age of 23, I was the youngest teacher at all seven of the schools I taught in. Now in all but 3 of these schools, there are new teachers that are younger than me.
Time is interesting. If I look at it from the standpoint of where I am now, then I think, "Wow, how did time go so fast? How could I have been here almost 3 years already?"
But if I think back, many of the events that took place in the past 3 years seem so far away now. I think back to friends who have come and gone here in Japan, and some of them seem so far in the past I can barely even remember their faces. And even Spring Break last year seems so far in the past now. I don't know, how have the past 3 years been for you?