One day left

Tomorrow is my last day with students. Nineteen years! It doesn’t seem that long but in some ways seems much longer. One of my first blog entries was about The Shawshank Redemption, digging through the prison walls, and grappling with being “institutionalized”.

My retirement party was Saturday but the feeling isn’t like Shawshank. There is no open white beach or endless blue sky. It is more like The Great Escape, free but still operating behind enemy lines. Freedom and eternity have their limits.

It’s like the feeling you get when you drive past the old high school. A melancholy mood permeates the car as you consider how much your life was shaped, for better or worse, inside that fence. I can’t help but think that those experiences will live with me forever.