Last Letter to my Students on the Eve of their Final Exam

Dear all,

In a few days you will start the final race for what will essentially be your last days as "pupils". You will then become "students", and then "adults". You know me well enough to know I don't mark the distinction. We are all learners, after all, every step of the way, and you are in many regards adults already.

You all know that this race isn't a race against the others, but against yourself. You will have to find the mental strength, and for some of you the moral fortitude, to affront each exam. I have no doubt that every single one of you -- and I mean every, single, one of you -- has what it takes to get your diploma.

You realise that it will be easier for some of you than for others, but as I wrote earlier, this is a race against yourself: you will have to fight through your own insecurities, your own personal problems, your own doubts, and perhaps other people's doubts. Yet if I could make you see yourselves as I do, you'd sit every exam with pride in your hearts, with that sort of confidence which commands respect. You would walk with your head held high, uncaring of others, with your eyes fixed on the horizon where your goals are.

I have to be honest with you: all of you command my respect. I find truly admirable that you have come this far down the road. Some of you have had really hard lives. Some of you have issues which even adults wouldn't want to have because they wouldn't know how to deal with them. And yet you do. You have found the force within yourselves to keep on walking, against wind and tides; you have found the strength of character to move on against those who spat on the path you were treading and judged you, against your own family sometimes who didn't trust you, against situations in which you felt trapped. It is true that some of you have had to put one knee on the ground, but none of you has faltered, all of you got back up and went forward -- the most obvious proof being that you are here, now.

I have shown you, in class, that a momentary show of weakness is nothing, nothing in the face of who you will become. We are all Frodo setting out of the Shire, unsure of which way to go, conscious that every step of that way will be fraught with danger. Frodo knew what the object of his quest was, that no one before him had attempted what he had set out to do, and many had warned him against the vanity, the foolishness of such a quest. In the end, he had only a few of his friends at his side to confront the darkness.

He discovered that the darkness outside was nothing compared to that within him. Fighting his own demons was probably the hardest part of his mission. But he knew that he could count on Sam. And here I am, being a Sam for you, talking to you in the ruins of Osgiliath, with Mount Doom in plain sight across the ashen plateau of Gorgoroth. Here I am telling you that hope is not a foolish prospect, that the year it took Frodo to walk up there is the same year it took to arrive where you are now, that you can do it.

Many of us teachers have been Sams for you Frodos. We have carried you this far up the volcano, but the rest of the way into the Crack of Doom you will have to walk on your own, confident that we have done everything in our power to help and guide you, to assure you that your quest isn't futile, your efforts not vain, your weaknesses not really weaknesses after all.

That your quest shall be a success depends on you, and you alone. As a very wise lady said: "If you cannot find a way, no one will". Adversity is just a strong gust of wind which may disorient us, which may slap us so hard that we fall to the ground. Yet you will do what you have always done: get back up on your feet.

You know it is the last part of this journey. It was a rich, eventful year, which marks the end of an era which you will remember, years from now, with fondness perhaps, smiling as you realise how far you have come. Perhaps you will remember your old, daft teacher telling you about Frodo and Sam with a tear in his eye and you will wonder if your adventures will be put into songs. Well, let me tell you something: it isn't because you cannot hear the music that the lyrics aren't playing. You are writing one of these songs as we speak. Another one will soon begin after this one is sung. Remember: this is how Arda and Middle-earth were created, with a song.

So here we are, at the end of some things and at the beginning of others. I do hope you are as serene and confident as possible, ready to give it all and be done with this damned exam.

Thank you for this wonderful year. You have taught me many things; you have shown me the best, and sometimes the worst, in you; you have all grown up a bit, but above all you have been yourselves. I am happy and proud to have been part of the journey, yet it is time for me to wave goodbye from the threshold to my classroom and wish you the best possible future, the greatest possible happiness.

Take very good care of yourselves.

With fondness,

Your English Teacher