A general vamoose

I'm always so conflicted about this time of year -- the end of the term. In some ways, it's amazing. As much as I love teaching, I get a break. I'm done with grading and this time around I'm done with course planning for a year. My small college town is drained of students and suddenly there's parking, there are fewer lines for coffee. Suddenly, it's quiet and lovely.

But it also means that my friends are leaving. Some are just leaving for the summer, but some are moving on. They're going to PhD programs or to start real jobs or to start looking for real jobs. Not all of them, of course, but some of them. And next year, next year it will (hopefully) be me who is packing up and leaving this town. There are people here who, at least right now, I can't imagine not seeing everyday. I've written about this before, I'm sure, and I'll write about it again, but, as I head into campus to start the dreaded work of cleaning out my file cabinet, I am reminded that this is all temporary. Of course, it needs to be temporary and I'm excited about the possibility of an actual J-O-B job, but I'm going to need to buy a huge house so that all of these people can come with me.