Celebrating Friendship: The ISD Middle School Dance 6.10

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At the time of this writing, we have a mere 2 1/2 days remaining in the school year.

As many of us remember, the first day of a new school year is often filled with anticipation, anxiety and regret (over the perceived loss of freedom, and a return to life in time), while the last day is jubilant, celebratory, with boundless elation over entering a landscape out-of-time, without horizon, freedom from obligation. The energy of a first day is generally subdued, hesitant, uncertain; the energy of a last day it is effusive, pouring, mad.

While this may be true of your local public school, where kids go home for the summer, returning to what is most familiar, their neighborhood, this is not necessarily true of an overseas international school, where the turnover can be a third or more, as families move on to new posts, and friendships, at all levels, are severed. Elements of grief and loss counter the jubilation.

Our current grade 6 will experience only minor change this year. Emily is heading to Lyon, Nicky to Cairo, Ben to Manila, Dalia and Charne are moving from ISDakar to crosstown Dakar Academy. The class will largely remain in tact.

In contrast, the 7th and 8th grade classes are experiencing dramatic change, with the departure of nearly half of the current students and families. The result promises to be a very teary close of this school year, witnessed both at the middle school awards' assembly and the middle school dance last Friday. Reality has arrived: friends are leaving, and the exceptionally strong sense of community enjoyed this year will change, carried over to virtual communities, such as facebook.

The photos taken at Friday's dance, some above, capture moments of friendship, relationship, connection. For many, the connections will be severed, and the felt sense of loss will bubble to the surface over the next several days.