The month of June signifies the end of the academic year: freshmen completing their first year of High School, sophomores anxious to start the IB, juniors completely stressed out with final exams, and seniors done with both their IB and Graded journey. Regardless, the month of June is also a goodbye period; some friends will be leaving, and beloved teachers too. For the whole of High School, one of the hardest goodbyes is to Mrs. Cope – who brings life, excitement, and comfort to all and represents the Graded High School better than anyone.
Mrs. Cope, at Graded for seven years, never fails to be Iconic around the building, be it for her pink hair, Australian accent, or hashtags like #BeTheLobster. In her special goodbye interview with The Talon, Mrs. Cope revealed that she is headed to Santiago, Chile, to start her new journey. “I know it’s not so far, and I will continue to have a similar lifestyle I have today. Chile I think is going to be the land of the trail – I can go mountain biking, trail running, skiing, triathlons…” We all know that Mrs. Cope is an athlete herself, we often see her around school with triathlon-numbered tattoos, pictures of her in races on the docket, or telling stories about her athleticism. However, she shares that it was Brazil who brought her back to athletics. “It was life changing, I didn’t do all this stuff before I got here. Covid was part of the motivation [as] we had some extra time when everyone was online. So instead of doing lunch duty I would go ride my bike, go for a run.”
Though it comes as no surprise, Mrs. Cope was a PE teacher before becoming the boss of High Schools and declared “[she] miss[es] getting to do stuff with students, actually being part of a class in a general day,” but confessed that “[she] loves this job more, as I have more influence on helping kids to adjust and to be successful, happy. It is a bigger and more powerful picture.”
Heading towards her finish line, although she is excited to make a difference in other student’s lives, and at first, thought “[the move] is normal,” now, “with 6 weeks to go, I am feeling massive saudades“. What she will miss the most from Brazil is “the relaxed culture, the warmth that comes with people in this country – this welcoming nature is only from Brazil.” She told us that sometimes when she is at races, people stop her and that is when she gets new friends, “it’s people who you don’t know but are so friendly.” It amazes her that “everyone says hello, says parabéns afterwards” as “this is not the same in every country, people are not that happy for you.”
The Graded Community will miss you a lot, Mrs. Cope. We are definitely very happy for you and we wish you all the best in your new challenges and hope to see you (very) soon. We know, that Graded won’t be the same without you.
