Adiós

Since I landed in Savannah on August 8, 2010, I've known that my last day of work at the Good Samaritan Clinic was going to be July 15, 2011. It has been one of those dates that seemed like it would never arrive, but last night, as my community members and I sat in anticipation of the final Harry Potter movie to begin, we uncomfortably watched our cell phones change from July 14 to July 15 at midnight.

In 12 hours, I'll be on a plane home.  In a week, I'll be on a plane to Los Angeles.  In 18 days, I'll be on a plane to Philly.  And in four weeks, I'll be heading back to Georgia to begin orientation at Emory.

Time is a very strange thing.  For the past few weeks, I've been wishing it away, but today, as I was trying to shove a year's worth of stuff into suitcases, the whole thing just didn't seem real.  It probably won't hit me that I'm not going to work at Good Sam or live with Linda, Regina, and Mike again until sometime next week.

Moving forward, I wonder how this year is going to look in hindsight. Will it just be a small blip in my life that I describe as "that year I lived in Savannah"? Will the frustrations I have with certain members of the hospital administration here fade dramatically as time goes on? Will I forget the original expectations I had for my relationship with Mercy this year and simply see it for what it was?

If one thing is certain, it is that I have learned a lot about myself this year. I am more confident in what I want to do with my life, and I have the patients and volunteers from the clinic to thank for that.

I've had several amazing goodbye parties and received many beautiful gifts and notes over the past week.  It's hard to imagine my daily life without many of the people I've grown to love here, but I'm also very excited and ready to begin my Master's program.

So I guess this is my last blog entry.  Thank you to those of you who read this and who have supported me through the good and bad of my year with Mercy Volunteer Corps!