the school on the hill

“I’m really gonna miss this school, Mom.”

“Yes Mom, I’m gonna miss this place so much!”

So I let them scuttle about, into the main hall where they used to roll out the black velvet cloth to plot the major events of world history, past through the classrooms filled with their books and maps and beads for skip counting and other materials, and down through the steps leading to the infinity pool where they learned their basic swimming strokes.

They went to the swings they really love and to the imposing rock wall that they conquered more in their minds than in their real climbs during free time in school.

I looked around and breathed in the wind that moved the leaves of the trees, looming and watching over this school on the hill. I turned to see the green playing field with the solitary mango tree where the girls and I tried to pry open a young coconut to earn our team points during one of the summer family fun days of the school. And I would never have them again.

Mike had finally come to the decision of transferring the girls to another school in the downtown area, and I already refused to disagree with him. Nika and Gela were saying goodbye to Abba's Orchard Montessori School today.

But I too, was saying goodbye this morning. I was saying goodbye to a friend. I had reached the uncomfortable decision last night and the visit here to this school that my girls are leaving was just heightening that fact. I did not want to end a friendship, but it was not my role anymore to ask why I should.

I walked down the white staircase and joined Nika and Gela. I took in the silence of the garden by the swimming pool, where the graduation and foundation day programs are conducted. From where I stood, the Macajalar Bay lays serene. I promised my friend then that if he will have the time, I'll show him this spot. Bring him here to my girls' school, to stand where the grass is green and the bay is blue. But I could forget that promise now.

I sat down with the girls. Then suddenly a windblown flower came to us, dancing in slow motion. Nika reached for it and it settled on her open hand. We were amazed with the umbrella-like feathers that gathered around its brown dried up seed.

Nika let go and it flew up. Then she caught it again. We all touched its softness. We could not tell what it is. We blew into the flimsy feathers. We did not know where it came from. We wondered where it will finally end up. It was fascinating for the girls.

I asked Nika to let it fly again. Release it, darling; maybe it will grow where it will fall. She did. It got caught up in the breeze and it went away in the sunshine and we could not see it anymore. Release it, I told myself. Do not be sad that you're losing a friend, be happy that you got the chance to know one.

Finally the certifications for good moral character were ready. We said thank you and we bid goodbye to the administration staff. Holding the documents, I led my girls to the van. We were riding off - them to their summer classes in the new school, me to my work in my new office.

It's a morning for letting go. Of a beloved school. Of a wonderful friend. But where we shall end up after this, I am sure that we will grow again.