Bittersweet Time of Year

Terry Smith

Director of the UMES University Writing Center

Bittersweet Time of Year

This is a bittersweet time of year.  Two of my friends and colleagues here at UMES recently posted on Facebook about their sadness at reaching the end of the semester with their students, and I couldn’t agree more. 

It seems that activity after activity keeps reminding us of the end—the end of the semester, the end of our time with our current students, and, especially bittersweet, the end of our time with graduating seniors. 

On the last Thursday of classes, I had a meeting of my new tutors.  But, the evening before the meeting, I decided to include food and drink, so I invited the four seniors who are leaving me to attend as well.  And all of them did so. They enthusiastically told the newly hired four tutors of their positive experiences in the Writing Center, and all mentioned how much they would miss it.  It just reminded me of how much I will miss them. 

Oh, I’m excited for them:  Two are English majors who have been accepted into master’s degree programs in English, one is an Exercise Science major moving on to graduate work in Physical Therapy, and one is a Math Education major, who is moving on to prepare for a teaching internship. They were all treasured members of my Writing Center family whom I feel I have gotten to know well in the past four months.  I care about them; I’m invested in them.  They filled the Center with personality and taught me a great deal about what makes an effective Writing Center.  And I had similar experiences as several regular clients of the Writing Center told me that they were graduating that as well. 

Later that same day, I met with my final Honors Technical Writing class.  And what a group they were!  We had an incredibly positive semester, and I was incredibly impressed with their final projects:  instructional manuals on topics ranging from How to Prepare for a UMES Pageant to How to Write a C++ Computer Program.  I saw exemplary work from students with strong enough averages to receive A’s with mediocre projects.   But that shows who these students are:  young people with a true passion for and commitment to learning.  Oh, I’ll get to see most of them again, especially now that I am in the Writing Center so much, but I’ll never get to work with them as closely again.  Although not as painful, I was still sad to see that day end. 

I don’t know how the students feel, but I know how I feel about the end of the semester.  Certainly, I’ll be relieved to put the heavy workload behind me for a few weeks, but, like my colleagues, I will miss the wonderful young people with whom I have been working closely for the past 14 weeks.  Although I have been teaching a long time and have worked with many students over the years, the young people I worked with this fall in the Writing Center and in class are truly special.  Of course, I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about the students with whom I work this spring.

I wish all of the young people with whom I worked this fall a restful and enjoyable break.  And, when those who did not graduate return for Spring 2013 rejuvenated and ready to learn, I remind them to stop by to visit because I miss them already J.  

UMES Family!

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