Saying Good-Bye

It's been snowing for days. Every time I go outside to my car, I have to clean it off, or defrost the windows, or kick enormous ice blocks out of the tire wells. It's a pain to drag boxes out of my house in this but it makes me even happier that I am moving to a place of permanent warmth. With about 70 hours left before my plane takes off, it's starting to sink in that I'm leaving. I'm glad there is still enough packing to keep me busy so I don't start freaking out. I'm excited to be headed to Jakarta and to a teaching position but, as with any new beginning, there is anxiety.

These last two weeks have been a sort of good-bye tour, with lots of lunches and dinners and drinks. I have complained a lot these last seven and a half years about how I haven't made very many friends in Indiana. I'd like to revise that complaint now: I've clearly made too many friends. Saying good-bye is not easy and I've been doing it over and over again. As much as I've truly enjoyed spending the last bits of time with good people I am not likely to see again for some time, I think I might have preferred to slip away unnoticed. Less melancholy that way.

These last couple days I'm going to spend as much time as possible with my family, enjoying their company up until the last possible second. And then, Tuesday morning, it's off to the airport to begin a thirty-six hour trip to my new home.