I’m leaving my school and students at the end of this month, so I’m agonising over the tone of the farewell speech I’m expected to give to the entire school. It’s customary for my principal to get departing staff to say a few words in front of the school, so yup I’m anticipating my 5 seconds of fame. 😅

Some days, I wake up, wanting to bare my soul and get vulnerable. Tell my form class kids about my own failure and how it has opened doors for me. How them failing their middle school exams has brought them into my life. (We are one of two secondary schools which exclusively accepts failures.) How our paths have crossed and how they have made my time memorable. How they have made imprints on my heart. That they matter. And I love them.

On other days, I wake up, not wanting to get so personal. Singapore is so small, and I’m certain to bump into them in one way or another after I leave the school. That I want to keep things light-hearted. Maybe I will sing the song a Malay song Garam and madu, a popular song that they have taught me. Maybe I will regale the audience with funny, wildly-out-of-context Malay words kaki gemok (fat leg) and Kenching manis (diabetes). Don’t ask me how they taught me these random words. Anyway, something to cement our time together. Some funny words that will make the whole school laugh and let my kids know that they have made a deep impression.

So, now I’m vacillating between being funny and being serious. All this indecision is costing me a lot of brain cells and emotional energy. But I guess I kinda like the struggle.

How will you choose to give your farewell speech? Which direction will you veer off towards?