Resignedly resigning

Today, the 19th of December, I have finally put in my official notice of resignation at my job. This is a somewhat bittersweet moment, in that the chocolate that I was chewing on while gleefully handing in said letter was of the bittersweet variety. Additionally, it was delicious.

This site will mostly be devoted to travel and the variegated happenings associated with it, however as this travel doesn't begin for several weeks, a few lines of pre-travel thought to hold myself over seem appropriate.

If all else fails, I am now set up to stay with a friend in London for a week to start. When I say that this person is of the kindest and most generous of dispositions, I am certainly understating her merits. Isabel and I have actually been in the same geographical vicinity as each other on exactly two occasions. However, the wonders of technology and my ironclad grasp on the concepts of time zone differentials has allowed us to be in touch. She has graciously offered me a space in her "flat", and I have accepted, under the condition that I be pleasant. I hope that I can fulfill this charge.

I have been repeatedly, and with some intensity questioned about the purpose of my travel, and the truth is that this is not a trip in which I expect to find myself. I'm pretty sure that I know where "myself" resides and if I ever lose track I can surely check the label on my underwear as I believe that it should provide that information...apparently I can be found in Malaysia and I should be machine washed on warm. That seems like not-terrible advice. Instead this is a trip both to run to, and to run from.

I run to knowledge and I run to history and I run to strangeness and I run to friendship. I run to see and smell things that I have not seen nor smelt. I run to experience that which others are afraid to, and that in honesty, I am afraid of myself.

However the running to is only half of it, as I also run away. I run away from a life I've always known and a city that is the one of two places that I've ever called home. I run from friends and ex-friends and a job and obligations. I run from stagnation and the idea that a path is something that does not ever diverge, but instead follows a gently winding, but ultimately straight path, that terminates in a downgrade that leads into leafy shadows. As the title of this website alludes, there are always paths that will be "just as fair" and should you venture upon them, what black leaves you will trample and what light, however dim, you will carry into a darkness.

I see myself both as cowardly and brave, largely because I know that embarking on a trip like this is as much a flight from as a flight to. But now I am repeating myself but replacing certain key words. Surely this is as tiring to you as it is to me.

On a note which I found bittersweet without the benefit of confection, today was my last day to participate in the "reading buddies" program at an elementary school in downtown D.C. I have been working with this program for a year or so now, and my "buddy" as it were, is named Herberth Aguilar. I have many other "buddies" however, as pretty much anyone in the class is welcome to use my gangliness as a kind of living jungle gym, albeit one that topples more easily than those we see outside of schools, as my feet are not usually encased in cement. Since I do enjoy teaching and see it as one of the highest and noblest pursuits, I have offered up this website to the class as a tool to refer to throughout the coming months so that others can experience some of what I am experiencing. I sincerely hope that I do not fail in this regard. I also sincerely hope that my standards of appropriateness and decency remain at a level high enough to avoid excessive censorship. I am not exactly known for my ability to keep certain...forbidden words in check. My efforts need redoubling.