Graduation, Next Step: Nashville

I graduated last week. It was lovely, but I didn't feel elated or excited. It mostly felt surreal because I felt awful. Once the ceremonies were all over, my body just decided it was time to let go and go ahead and be sick. I didn't get a chance to wish many of my friends farewell, but I hope it means I'll end up being more aggressive about keeping in touch until we see each other again.

I drove down to Nashville for a quick visit immediately after graduation and have decided, given my emotional state (sad about leaving school) and physical state (don't even ask me to describe. Gross), to hold back on forming an initial impression about Nashville. The visit was quick -- put my stuff in storage with fingers crossed I'd remembered everything I would need for Institute was packed accordingly. Drove around to look at different areas of Nashville and make some mental notes for actual apartment hunting. Seeing as I couldn't actually talk and standing up for more than about 5 minutes at a time was a challenge, I put off actual apartment hunting. Probably a good call, but it would have been nice to actually get that out of the way.

I managed to collect a number of school supplies from friends and roommates, including a number of things that would normally have made the trash but might amuse small children. I also have a growing collection of teacher books courtesy of my mother, a veteran K-8 teacher.

I start driving on Saturday morning and will make it to Nashville by Sunday night. Between now and then, I'm letting my body compel me to sleep as much as it likes to -- I have a feeling I'm getting all my sleep for the summer packed into this week.

Nashville on my mind

Nashville. Not that I had to show it to my friends on a map, but it's mostly been this theoretical place where people like country music and stars like Nicole Kidman and Miley Cyrus feel like normal people. I can't imagine anything feeling less like normal than what the people there are going through. While studying for finals, I find myself drifting back to news sources to see if there's more information.

I cannot begin to imagine what this is like

It has given me an acceptable and clear response as to why I do not have a placement yet-- the schools and the city have bigger issues right now than who they will hire for the upcoming school year.