Bye, Cottolengo School.

Well, let me alert you that this is an emotional and personal confession. I did not want to write this. I did not feel like penning this post. In fact, as I key in this article, I have mixed feelings. I feel as if something big has suddenly dropped off my bag. I feel as if someone has snatched away my golden case. Yes, there is sorrow connected to detachment. Yet, I have another feeling of anxiety which is actually more pressing. I have this feeling that I am about to begin a truly exciting adventure. Yes, these two feelings are alternating frequently.

I have been slowly persuaded to write this by my four friends, now mentored learners. I did not want to bid them farewell by they brought up the topic so frequently that I had to give in. When I celebrated a farewell mass on Thursday evening, I realized then that I was not alone in feeling that my imminent departure had caused pain to majority of pupils and staff in the school community. The announcement was taken by many as a conspiracy to take away joy from daily life. I was at pain to explain that I was actually happy to go because it showed that my superiors trusted me and wanted me to take up a new service at Kisarawe (Dar es salaam).

I do not know what the entire school community has to say of my one-year service at school, doubling as a teacher and counsellor. All I am sure of is this: I enjoyed myself in this place. There was so much to do everyday that I was almost always exhausted but happy to have served. Rabindranath Tagore expressed the same idea more consisely:

I slept

and dreamnt that

life was joy.

I woke

and saw that life was service.

I served

and understood

that service was joy.

Allow me to follow up this idea closely:

JUST A MINUTE!

Let me come, give me a minute.

I will be back with stories of life,

if I go to gather them.

You won't regret,

for life's full on them.

When I am gone,

do not say, "He was here."

Rather say, "See the evidence".

For you can tell them all,

that I'm just out for a while,

to gather stories of life.

You won't regret,

for life's full on them.

I want to know more.

Isn't life about learning?

You say, no, and I agree.

Yet, Life's lesson's are many,

to be learnt and taught.

You won't regret,

for life's full on them.

Bye, Cottolengo School community.

Fr. Nicholas N. Kirimo, SSC