Last Day at WALES and School and Back to Work

Well, yesterday was my last day of placement and today was my last day of class. Yesterday, I had both my final presentation at WALES and my culminating review with my teacher. We are required to write a reflective paper for our placement supervisor, but at WALES, they encourage us to be creative. Previously, someone had written a paper, someone else had done a powerpoint presentation, the year previous, someone had drawn a picture and sung a song. I knew that last year's had gone over very well, so I felt I needed to do something a bit more artistic. I'm not much of a singer and I didn't want to copy her anyway, so what I did was I wrote out a speech with poetry.

I was really wigged out when they slotted the entire afternoon to my going-away presentartion. My poem wasn't that long. I had forgotten that the final presentation includes going through all the participants and letting them tell you how they feel about you leaving, sharing their memories and asking questions. And then there's celebratory cake. So it filled the afternoon, and my poetry was a huge success.

This year is the first when people are offered the choice to remain in their year one placements as they continue to second year. My supervisor asked me if I would be interested. I said I was strongly interested and she told me that she wouldn't confirm anything, but she would message my teacher that I was strongly interested. She also mentioned that they encourage students to explore new experiences.

On the last day, I asked if they had considered keeping me, and she said it was something worth bringing up with my teacher. I figured these dodgy remarks meant "no", and they just didn't really want to confront me about it. I went through the final celebration, everyone was crying, they gave me my goodbye gift, I went in for the final review, and basically the first thing they said was "We want him back."

The review was totally glowing on both ends. When I came out, all the staff were congratulating me. They knew. They just strung me along and made me go through the goodbye proceedings.

Other people have to do five interviews over the summer. I don't have to do anything.

This is the first year where we receive a grade for Field Seminar. Previously it was just a pass/fail. So now the teacher requires us to give them a copy of our reflective papers. Since I wrote a poem, I told him he was going to have to be an art teacher. He was impressed by the poem, but he told me to write a one-page summary of it, so that it could be more introspective. He offered me an extension, since I'd already done the work, but I told him I'd be fine. And then I wound up writing an entire paper and including the poem.

My placement is taking one other student, so I should have a coworker next year.

I got an "SSW" hoody today, and an "I Choose Dignity" Extend-a-Family T-shirt.

Also, same day, my Order Picking job gave me a call, asked me if I could come in Monday. That's right, they kept track of when my last school day would be, and they called me at that time. I didn't have to job search, the job searched me. Unfortunately, that will put me back in Guelph. I have so many celebratory events to attend, but ahhh.... It's hard to say no to the money.

All my roommates are moving out next year. Full new roster of people.