This week marks the end of the term and as our Corps of Cadets venture home we are blessed with warm goodbyes, hugs, and wishes for safe travels.  It is impossible not to be in awe of the change in our relationship since they first met me that early September day.  It seemed rather like that scene in James Hilton’s novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.  The story surrounds, Mr. Chips an awkward schoolmaster who finds his way to a beloved headmaster.  When Mr. Chips’ pupil first says goodbye as he is leaving on break. He asks his tutor, “Shall I call you ‘sir’ – or would ‘Mr. Chips’ be the right thing?’  I remember fondly, that first day at NYMA when I was introduced as ‘The Dean.’  Daunting words indeed.  Now softened they all know me as Mrs. McDonald, although often shortened to ma’am.  Life is full of blessings and although we don’t always see the light, it is there.  As my daughter once reminded me “you can only see the stars at night.”  Like life for Mr. Chips, life at NYMA is “funny and sad, comic and tragic” but also in casting my thoughts on these past months and the thought of your children, cadets in our Corps, my eyes are glowing with a thousand recollections and the realization of how blessed I am.