And then we came to the end!

Term officially ended on Friday. On Thursday my writing students turned in their final portfolios, and on Wednesday I held my last session of office hours. On Wednesday I also collected my marking for two sections of Writing Texts, assembled a hodge-podge of other paper-based work of varying degrees of urgency, and made the mistake of glancing at all of my email inboxes. So when my last session of office hours ended and I realised that I was officially done with the class planning and human interaction part of teaching for the school year I was massively relieved. And then I walked out into the cool spring evening with several weeks' worth of work in my backpack and realised that if I did not assert my individuality in some small way right that moment I might literally cease to exist.

So I walked back to my flat, fetched my computer cord, and peaced out of Norwich.

I'm not good at spontaneous - as might be apparent from the fact that I still plan all of my classes instead of "going with the groove" the way my colleagues tell me I should. I need to plan ahead, especially when traveling, because when I don't Bad Things Happen (see: getting stuck in Cambridge until ± 3 AM on a teaching day because I didn't double check the train schedule and assumed that everything would be all right). But I managed to get one of the last trains to Reading, and I made it back to my spouse-thing's house. And in my haste to leave the City of Literature I seem to have left my brain behind, because I have done absolutely nothing worth reporting since collapsing on our doorstep at two in the morning.

Even looking at the essays I have to mark I can't help being a little excited at the prospect of teaching again in the Fall - which might be indicative of the fact that someone at some point somehow managed to re-educate me into accepting my lot in life. And a quick flick through my inbox makes it look like I'll be getting around quite a bit later this year in my capacity as Writer.

Of course, I may read through these final papers and decide to set myself up as an evil overlord. They say it's good for one to keep one's options open.