It’s been winding down to a close for a while now. I need to tie up my loose ends both here at work, and here in Dallas, and it’s strange to do. I’ve never knowingly left a big chunk of my life like this. I mean, I’m not leaving it behind, not completely, because I’ll still keep the friendships and contacts that I had before, but I’m walking away from a decent job and a whole city (not to mention oodles of memories, a lot of them bad but not all).

There are other things that I’m closing the door on, as well. At this point, I suppose I will never hear from Amber Cantrell (whose new married name I do not know) or Elizabeth Gabhart (Chapman) again. I’ll probably end up wondering whatever happened to them, in much the same way I often wonder about ol’ Sarah K Kessler, the brief email flirtation that punctuated my high school years. (Though I believe she is a Doctor somewhere, either in Houston or in Irving.) The world turns as the world wills, I suppose, and one door closes to open another. Never something I’ve ever lived without fighting, I don’t think, but I have made some changes since last September, and I am a better man for it. Goodbye to all three, may your lives be better tomorrow than they were yesterday, forever.