Curtain Call

How apt is it that I have chosen to write this latest introspective on a train, the location of my first post to this blog. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you read what I write), the tone of this particular post will be a little different.

First of all, I never had a chance to do a follow-up post talking about how my practicum ended. Suffice it to say that it ended as well as it began, and that I am pleased to have had the positive experiences I have had in both practica, since I know that is the exception rather than the norm. I even had the delightful chance to express my disdain over the "pastoral visit" I received (as referenced in my previous post) on an official level, which was wholly satisfying. It's interesting that my testimony regarding the visit I received was not unique in nature, and I doubt it will go unactioned. Thank goodness.

So where am I now (aside from pulling up to a train station about an hour away from my destination)? For all intents and purposes, I should be pretty happy. Teacher's College is effectively over. I have an assignment due this Monday (which will be submitted by a friend of mine, since I will be several hundred kilometers away from school), and then I get a small break before my delightful and amazing internship wherein I get to romp around a park for a month. It's educational, of course.

As I said, I should be pretty happy, but instead, I am pretty unhappy.

My previous post ended with the declaration that my grandfather might not make it through March Break. He made it through the week, but he passed away this Thursday. I'm not sure that I am in the right mental space to make any sort of further comment on that at all. He lived a long life, and he ultimately passed peacefully and pain-free, which is the ideal, isn't it?

Which brings me to today. I'm en route home to visit family and gain some closure.

I want to devote the end of this entry to some seemingly-necessary cheesiness.

Hug your family.

Visit your grandparents.

It doesn't matter if you don't want to, do it.

Don't make excuses.

If they have the mental space to do so, ask them about their lives. They like that kind of stuff.

If you disagree with their point of view on a political issue, remember that they come from a different generation and brush it off.

Make sure you take the time to build positive memories with them, because once their time ends on this planet, those memories will be all that is left.

Don't be left with raging guilt like me.