Finishing Things

I have a friend who used to say he was good at finishing things, and that this is a skill (finish the bathroom, Dad!).  This was in the context of finishing artwork (graphic novels).  As I am nearing my graduation from graduate school (praise be! hallelujah!) I find myself thinking about finishing things - finishing this piece of work I have been working on for a long time.

I realize that I’m not just finishing graduate school, but I’m moving away.  I’m moving away from the Northeast - this region of the country where I have grown all of my community, from childhood through now.  This is where I grew up, went to camp, went to college, worked, and endured graduate school.  Not only that, my skip across the Atlantic to Scotland will now become a double skip across a country and then an ocean.  I can no longer easily hop the Canadian border to visit my brother.  I am making it harder for myself to see the people I know so well and love. 

Why do we do this?  I know I’m not the only one.  It’s funny how you can feel out of place in a place - how you can travel elsewhere and think, “I like this elsewhere” so much that you move to live there.  That’s how I feel about the West.  I love living there.  And I’m probably idealizing it and romanticizing it - of course.  Because you don’t know a place until you truly live there - and to live there is different than visiting.  We all know that.  

And so, I will finish my time here.  For now.  

Me and my Gloucester friends

Winterrrrrr

Lobstah

Hey Rockport

Hey!

Family Portrait Time

Setting Up

To the Prop Shed

Ropes Course Mornings

My CAT

Montreal <3

Dear Friend and Her Dear Alice