The Final Countdown

Today was the last day of session! We all ate one final breakfast with our halls (though there was a lot more yearbook signing than eating going on), and then the kids had a final hour and a half of class. The engineering class tested out the spaghetti bridges they've spent all week making, and let me tell you there were some pretty intricate designs. My girls' bridge was not one of them, and it unfortunately held the least weight of the four. But before you go all Larry Summers on me, you should know that the bridge they spent all week making got destroyed yesterday in a tragic table-moving accident and the one they tested today was actually made in less than two hours, so I was very proud of them anyway. The design that held the most weight was simple and elegant, and the kid who made it's hands were shaking as he added the weights because he was so nervous, which I though was really sweet. I also stopped by for one last visit to the neuroscience class, and the boys actually formed a line for me to sign their yearbooks! I was really flattered...Also, at the top right in the pink tank top you can see the coolest and best neuroscience teacher in the history of man. No lie.

After class was the closing ceremony, which was probably the last time all the RAs will ever be in the same place again. There was no cool neuroscience rap this time, though :( After the ceremony came five hours of rotating through scheduled presences, moving boxes from the site office to the CTY POD, packing my own stuff, and saying goodbye to tearful girls. The one that cried the most was actually My Favorite from this session, so having her clinging to me in tears was a pretty heartwrenching experience. Another one said "I want to go to MIT so I can go to the same school you did!" Awww... Ooh, and at one point a random Mom (not one of my girls') came over, pointed to my brass rat, and said "Class of '78, Course 5." How cool is that? We talked for a little bit and it was really interesting because she went there when not many women did, and she was one of the first classes to live in McCOrmick. That definitely made up for the three times a parent said "You're my daughter's RA? Really? I thought you were her roommate or something" after their kid ran over and hugged me.

After all the kids were gone, we got to read the evaluations they filled out about us last night. Unlike last time I did have one criticism on an evaluation, apparently I "could be slightly more flexible." This was from one of the girls whose case I was always on about punctuality, lights out, etc... though, so I don't take it too personally. I was surprised by how positive some of their comments were since I didn't really start trying to be super-RA until the end of session, but apparently they were pleased:

"Caroline is unusually responsible and knowledgeable."
"Caroline is très awesome. She's super duper friendly! Really, we love her."
"Caroline was AMAZING! Very friendly and like an older sister except better. I love her :)! She's the bestest. The 'supercalifragalisticexpialadocious' of RAs."
"I loved Caroline! She was an awesome RA and I wouldn't change a thing about her. Even other halls have said that she's the best female RA this session :)"
"I definitely, without a doubt in my mind, can say that Caroline is the PERFECT RA."

I also really liked the fact that under "Other Comments," Makeout Girl wrote "The RAs are too strict about PDA." I'd just like to say that I've never stopped any kids for holding hands or having their arms around each other, I only stop them when I'm concerned about the integrity of their airways.

To celebrate the end of both sessions, CTY paid for the whole staff to go to dinner at a nice restaurant. It was delicious, but also sad because some of the RAs left right after it was over. Happily most of us are staying until tomorrow though, and tonight we're going to watch a summer camp classic and party like it's intersession.

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I can't believe it's almost over...