Good luck in Japan!

I am much moved. Today, 5 minutes into first period, our counselor came into my classroom to tell me that I was needed for a phone call in the office. As I started walking down the hallway, I thought, why couldn’t they just transfer the call to my room? Did something happen to my family? Then when I saw Mr. Arpin, my principal, at the end of the hall, standing near our lecture hall, I wondered. This could be even worse, or there’s something fishy going on in the lecture hall. Sure enough, as I walked in expecting maybe the staff to be there, the room erupted in cheering and clapping from the entire student body. It was a short “sayonara” assembly for me before my departure on my journey to Japan with the JFMF program. Our choir, headed by my good friend Jennifer Sawyer, sang a traditional sayonara song, adding some lyrics:

The time has come for us to say sayonara.
Our thoughts will always be yours for eternity.
We knew sometime we’d have to say sayonara.
Please promise that you’ll be returning someday to IB.

We’ll remember your classroom until the day that we die.
We’ll hear your voice in the books and poems in the sky.
Hold these thoughts close before you say sayonara,
And promise that you’ll always keep us near to your heart.

The time has come for us to say sayonara.
Our thoughts will always be yours for eternity.
We knew sometime we’d have to say sayonara.
Please promise that you’ll be returning someday to IB.
Tell us all the lovely sights you see.


As I sat there listening to them, and making direct eye contact with each individual singing to me, my emotions got the better of me, and a profound sense of joy rush through me. Tears only welled at first. Then after the song, with the cheering and clapping and all of the attention focused on me, I became overwhelmed and choked up. Thank you again. Thank you CIBA choir for the time it took to rehearse the piece, and the energy it took to keep it a secret. Thank you.