Packing everything up over the past week has naturally been a melancholy time, as things treasured and preserved from years past are reviewed and, often, discarded. It has, in a sense however, been satisfying; I'd changed role and moved offices four times, and each time I'd bring a lot of the same stuff along with me. This time of course I didn't have that option, so it was either bring things home or throw them out. Many of my old TAFE and IT course materials in particular, went into the recycling bin - I'd kept them 'just in case' I needed them again or went back to those disciplines (though really, who needs a course materials folder on Windows 2000?). But psychologically, throwing out those things was very much like closing off for the final time a chapter of my life that was no longer relevant.
Going through those old things was also a pleasant reminder of just how many different projects I'd been involved with, and the joys, and challenges, those projects had brought.
Choosing to leave was hard, in the sense of how attached to the place I was - my ideal would have been to have had the full year off. However given I was unable to get any extra time off and our road trip simply would not happen if I'd stayed, in a sense it was a very easy decision to take - easier than if I'd perhaps been offered two months' leave and we had to decide whether that would be long enough to achieve what we wanted.
I've had a great run at the University and am certainly very grateful for the time I've had, so today's do was much more a celebration of a great time than a sad day (this is sounding like a funeral as I write this!). We're very much looking forward to the next exciting chapter of our journey as we roam this great southern land, but we'll always have a special place for, and be very thankful for, the experiences gained and friendships forged in my 21 years at The University of Adelaide.
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