Prone to nostalgia

Dave stopped by my school yesterday to drop off his keys on his way out of town. Though he’s all packed up, I will linger through the weekend. My last day of work is Friday, and it has fallen on me to give our keys to the building manager. I can handle it.

You see, we're moving.

He pulled up in front of the school, car filled to the brim. It was hot and heavy outside. He was wearing old clothes that he likely found on the floor of his closet, clothes that I had never even seen all rumpled and dusty. Thus, my boyfriend struck me as slightly unrecognizable and unfamiliar, a wayward college student heading off on his big summer adventure, moving out and moving on.

In fact, Dave is and I am and we are striking out on a new adventure. He starts a program at a school in Michigan next week. He has a plan. I, well, I'm going canoeing for a month, leaving 3 weeks from yesterday. And then I'm working. Somewhere. Doing something. I guess that's a plan too.

I got home from work and opened the door to an almost empty apartment. A jar of olives here, an umbrella there. This is the detritus, the flotsam of our life in Boston. I got that pit in my stomach.

Being prone to nostalgia, I immediately called every one in my phone book to chat about mostly mindless and distracting things all afternoon. I even walked around the neighborhood pond talking incessantly and was glad I had the phone distract me from the poignancy of it all. Dave and I had just played catch there the night before! Right there! And I had grown frustrated and quit early. Why had I done that? We would never play catch here again. The agony!

And then today an unassuming teenager gifted me such a gift, a gift to go down in my personal history of great gifts. The student handed this undeserving librarian a signed copy of The Fault in our Stars by the much loved young adult writer John Green (who, as a matter of fact, hails from Indianapolis!). She also included a lovely message in the front cover. It will stay on my bookshelf for many moons as receiving it has been one of the highlights of my year. The whole thing really made my heart swell. It just might burst if I don't get out of here soon! (By the way, are any of you nerdfighters? More on that some other time.)

Needless to say, I'm ready to go, go, go and leave these emotional fits behind me. I'll play this song as I peel out of town:

More likely, I'll play this song I've been singing the past 2 weeks since my brother and I played it about 18 times when he came to visit: