Goodbye DC

This was it. Today was my last day working for Bright Beginnings Inc. It was really sad. All morning I spent time in the classrooms playing with the kids that I will never ever see again, and they won't remember that when they were in preschool a nice lady named Suzanne used to stop by everyday and play with them and hold them upside down. I spent lots of time in my favorite classroom, class 2, where twelve one to one and a half year olds waddle their way around the room playing with toys and sticking their tongues out at each other. When it came time for me to go I said my goodbyes to the kids, to the teachers, to the parents, and to the other office staffers like myself. "Write us, call us, keep in touch," they all say, but how long will this last? Soon everyone will move on from that place as I am right now, every child will grow up and hopefully have a better life than the homeless one dealt to them in the beginning, every teacher will move on to other jobs, every office staffer will move on to other places and other interests. So much change. Last night I said my farewells to many of the friends I made in DC in my two years here. Some goodbyes were really difficult, some not so much. I left early from the bar so I would always have a upbeat semisober memory of my last happy hour with them and remember how happy and sad I was to be leaving everyone. As I was plodding down the street with John, he reminded me that I would be sad if I stayed because most of the people who had come to the happy hour to say goodbye were leaving soon themselves. In that case I'm glad I'm leaving with them; I don't think I'd be very happy staying here. So the past couple days have been the days of goodbye, bittersweet, but needed and in the end, worth it. The next couple days will be the days of putting all my possessions together, cleaning up where I once l resided, and leaving my set of keys behind. Monday morning we hit the road for what I think can be a great thing.