A Letter to my School upon my Departure

Dear IES Profesor Tierno Galván,

My departure has gotten me all emotional and reflective and I thought it was appropriate for me to write you a letter. So here goes.

There are a million things that I could say about this school, but the one that seems the most important is: thank you.

Thank you for your garrish yellow walls and sunny windows.

Thank you for your cafeteria where I spent more private lesson money than I’d care to admit and learned more about Córdoba than I ever expected.

Thank you for your library that took me an embarrassingly long time to find, but introduced me to the book of Machado’s poetry that changed my life.

Thank you for the brasero under the table in the teachers’ lounge that warmed my legs and my soul in the cold winter.

Thank you for all of the bizarre and informative conversations I had in the teachers’ lounge about everything from politics to the value of good olive oil.

Thank you for that one bathroom stall next to the window that always had a pleasant glow and weirdly made me happy.

Thank you for the lovely patio where I sat out in the sun and once, in a moment of utter desperation, fell asleep between two deck chairs.

Thank you for your spotty wifi connection and malfunctioning whiteboards that forced me to think on my feet.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with such a kind, innovative, and creative faculty who allowed me to create, fail, grow, and never lost faith my abilities to lead a class.

But most of all, thank you for the gift of teaching a group of students who tested my patience and vocal chords daily, but also inspired me with their affection, curiosity, and intelligence and surely taught me more than I did them.