I say hello, and I say goodbye.

It's so excellent when they're all here that it becomes extra difficult when they're all gone. I move through it by losing myself in those ongoing adventures called Research, Advising, and Class Preparation. I fight a losing battle with a video projector; my class watches a movie on only 1/3 of a screen. At the end of the day, I am too over-involved to have any contemplative part of myself left, and I remember: this is what it was like. This is what I swore wouldn't happen again.