Oh, How We'll Miss You...

June 6, 2010

After nineteen years of working alongside me as my colleague and my friend, Steve Williams will be retiring at the end of this week. It's hard to believe next year he won't be roaming hallways, popping into others' classrooms just because, and entertaining us all with his own unique sense of humor.

On Friday we had a farewell party for Steve, with lots of us from school giving him a send-off at Sal's Restaurant. I love that the gifts we gave him were such personal and fitting gifts. Ed, who works with us, took individual pictures of each of us in the English department and compiled them in a recreated photography 'magazine'. He and his wife took all of the pictures and cropped them badly or blurred them (examples of bad photography), and then we each got to sign a personalized message on our page of the magazine. It's a gag gift (since Steve is photographer), but still one that holds a special meaning, since it's full of messages of love and well-wishes. Steve also waited for years to be nominated for our district's Crystal Award (Teacher of the Year Award), but it just never happened. We decided we'd create and bestow upon him our very own incarnation of the Crystal Award, handmade and designed by our colleague and Steve's on-campus partner in crime, Amy. I really think Steve loved the gifts, and I hope he knows how much much we all care about him.

So, what's he going to do next year? My guess is he'll spend his new-found free time pursuing his other passion, photography. Steve is such an amazing photographer that when I got married three years ago, I asked him to be our photographer. I've enjoyed sharing my amateur efforts with him, and I've appreciated his willingness to share his photographs (and his knowledge of cameras!) with me over the years. He inspires me to want to keep learning and growing.

Steve's quirky and funny and his kids adore him. Even more importantly, he has been a great friend to me over the years, and school is certainly not going to be the same without him next year. I'll miss you, Steve!