I am inspired by Claire MacDonald's new blog (Claire, I hardly took advantage of your presence here at all--what a fool I am!) and its first entry to return to this blog as I begin to psychologically prepare for a radically new stage in my life. I know there are those herders out there (G, MGK, others) who have made this radical shift to a new home, a new community, and a new sense (perhaps) of permanence.

But right now, I'm thinking less about restarting than I am about the eerie consequences and consequencelessness of winding down a chapter in the life of . . .

I've been here for 13 years come this fall (undergrad, grad and first job combined), and I've formed my entire adult identity in this metropolitan space. A fluidity of haunts, friends, tasks and homes has always allowed me to process change in increments, and the spectre of the uprooting to come (while not without its excitement) raises terrifying questions--

Whom will I never see again?
What places will be gone the next time I'm back in town?
Which habits of mind, those attached to recent locations and roles, will I abandon altogether?
How quickly will this present become a distant past?