A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Today I set out for the city where I'll be working on my MS. Ironically, the choice that once seemed least likely turned out to be the one I made; of all my options, it's the most prestigious program, in the largest urban area, farthest away from where I currently am. ("It's a big place," one of my professors said, when I told him I was applying. "People can get lost there.")

I think it's starting to really sink in that I'm leaving, that I'm going away. Yes, I'll almost certainly be back over winter break, but--this will be my first time in seventeen years living outside the town where I've grown up.