Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Friday, June 24, 2005
If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck.....
Quack. Quack, quack, quack.
I'm having a feeling that I don't think I've had in some 25 years. It's the "end of school" feeling. Remember? When the weather gets nice, and there were only 2 weeks of school left, and you know how your grades were going to turn out, so it mattered not a bit whether you studied, let alone showed up for class? When every evening you took home a big backpack full of stuff from your locker, so that it was cleaned out before the end of the semester? A sense of impending freedom and endless possibilities for the summer ahead? Yeah - it's like that....
Instead of skipping lunch or grabbing a sandwich at my desk, I'm suddenly free to go off campus to meet a friend or colleague and linger over a nice lunch by the water for 2 hours. Instead of coming in at 7:00 - 7:30, I stroll in around 8:30-8:45 and leave at 5:30 instead of 6:00 or 7:00.... People drop into my office unannounced to reminisce and wish me well. I suddenly seem to be taking home gifts tucked in with the photos on my desk, the pictures and diplomas on my wall, and the books on the shelves. I took home a box of books and binders every evening last week, and the shelves are looking a bit bare. I can see the surface of the conference table in my office and my desk instead of the "vertical files" I had placed in piles.
All in all, it's winding down.... And like the last day of high school, where it's hard to say goodbye to all your friends, you know the close ones will always stay in touch, and that it's time to move on. It's a good feeling.
mazel tov! Not every transition is like that :-)