Bittersweet

Summer in this college town is drawing to a close. I'm seeing lots of U-Haul trucks in the student residence areas, more professors in their offices, more emails in my inbox. I'm starting to get ready to move on – with the help of a little push from my old university! This week, my dear alma mater <cough> began to cut me off. My laptop stopped connecting to the campus wi-fi; my carrel is being repossessed by the library. And I'm now consistently greeted in the hallways with the well-meaning questions, "What are you still doing around here?" "Aren't you leaving soon?"

Humphrey the Thesis Carrel Camel has abandoned his old post.

Today I returned my last library books and gutted my desk in the shared graduate student offices. I haven't worked there for years (our department library is so much lovelier), but there's a new finality to the acknowledgement that I must clear my space so that an incoming graduate student can occupy it. Isn't that the strange thing about schools? That consistent turnover is desirable, a sign that students have properly progressed to the point where they can leave.

I'm comforted by the knowledge that I will soon get new wi-fi passwords, new interlibrary loan privileges, a new I.D. Still, it stings just a bit to recognize that I must make way for others to take my place.