Bye bye, little Q.

Q is my favorite little girl in preschool. We bonded over a moment when she told me she thought her black hair was ugly, and I told her it was beautiful. Since then, we've been friends.

We ran into problems when she began crying every time I left the room. She was four, and she was crying because her teacher wasn't there.... so I had to modify some things to make things easier for her.

But we're still friends. She still falls asleep next to me during nap time, holding my hand.

This week, I was sitting next to her during breakfast.

"I'm not going to come to preschool anymore in two weeks!" Q said.

"WHAT?!"

"No, I'm going to stay home and eat cake and cookies and play with my baby sister!"

"Q! What are you saying! Why are you leaving?!"

"Preschool makes me bored!"

I held onto the hope that she's just  being four, that this wouldn't really happen, that Q would stay forever. Alas, the secretary confirmed it. My little Q is leaving me. On April 12. It's hard, because she became my student, my Q, she became mine, and now she's leaving. Her parents are graduating and moving out of state. I'm happy for her. She's talked about wanting to be a doctor some day, and I know she'll achieve that dream.

I sat her down a few days ago and said "Q, I'm really going to miss you, you know?"

And she looked down and smiled a sad little smile and said "I'm going to miss you too, Miss Lara."