Through the Curve

This morning I woke up early and was able to get stuff done, which made me feel good. The feeling didn't last long. My phone rang just as my watch had turned eight and on the other end was one of my monitors (a student in charge of his/her class) saying that their class had started. Since the first session has always begun at eight-twenty, I was rather confused. He said it again and being confused even more, I thought he had said they had another class. What?! He explained yet again, saying that the school had changed the schedule.

At school I ran up the stairs and made it to the classroom. Once I could talk without taking in gasps of air, I asked about the schedule. The students then shared that it had been a school-wide change which had been decided before the break and, apparently, someone had forgotten to mention this.

After class I went to the waiban (foreign affairs) to say hello to everyone. Once there, Jenny slyly said that she had a surprise for me - she's been accepted into a university in Austria to get her masters! On top of that, she'll be starting this September. I was so excited and happy for her, that I have her a huge hug. I can't believe she will be living abroad and am so excited for her! Then Cable, another lady in the office, said that she was accepted to study in another province for her degree. Talk about good news!

When I had been filled in by everyone on all the details of their news, I crossed the hall into Jennifer's office to catch up with her. We asked about each other's holiday, talked about Chen Lan (Sara) coming back from America, and then my brother's visit and my leaving. Suddenly, there was tearing up from across the desk. I got up, rounded the desk to Jennifer and gave her a hug, joking that she had to stop because it was too early for that and if I started I wouldn't be able to stop. It touched my heart and I suddenly began to realize just how big my leaving would be.

On the walk home I felt like everything was different from before. I felt like I'd been going down the same path for the past two years, and having rounded a corner in a road, suddenly everything was totally changed and there was no looking back, not even a glance being possible. From a friend moving to Austria to my service coming to a close, even right down to the school schedule changing, everything seemed to have morphed into something else, leaving me confused as I tried to remember just what was.