Year End

I am almost finished for another year. Within another ten days or so I will be done teaching until next September (on the assumption that I get my contract renewed). It has felt like a long semester for no particular reason, or at least no reason related to school. Of course the fact that our first taste of spring came so early has made it especially difficult to focus on the tasks at hand. Spring fever can be a debilitating condition. And so I am glad that it is almost over. Almost over that is except for the marking. This, for what it is worth, is not nearly as an onerous task as some would have you believe.

Four months off – it sounds like an eternity, an almost unimaginable amount of time off to do whatever I want to do. I suspect my father or some other men of his generation would have been in awe of having that much time off and perhaps even confused by the concept that the time was theirs to do what they wanted with it. Of course it is not entirely free. I have a few medical appointments, a couple of birthday parties to attend, a pile of wool washing, spinning and weaving to do, and of course I have to pack. Because it is travelling time again!!!

For the last four or five weeks my thumb once again has started (metaphorically) to itch – just begging to be out on the highway. Every transport truck that I pass or every car on the highway that passes me has become a potential ride. I sometimes feel like some sort of ravenous vegetarian beast lying in the jungle waiting to pounce upon the unsuspecting drivers. I slow to check out crossroads to see where would be a good place to stand; along lonely stretches of highway I look just beyond the shoulder and wonder if there is a bit of flat ground to sleep that night. I swear this need; this compulsion to travel is a disease. It is a disease that I embrace and welcome. I can’t wait to go.

This year is going to be special. I am going to Yellowknife before going to the west coast. For years I have thought about going north. It is the only direction I have not travelled in Canada. I know that I am getting a bit older. I know that I won’t be able to travel this way forever. Every year I feel the wear and tear on my body just a little bit more. The long hills I have to walk up seem to get a bit higher, and when I sleep outside the ground seems a bit harder. So for a few days I want to spend time in a place where the sun stays visible all of the time, I want to know what it feels like to be out at midnight and still see the sun. But also want to see some new highways; to talk to people who live a different life than those of us who live in the south; I want to see a different kind of land. I am excited about the possibilities.


But then I suspect if I was going anywhere – I would still be excited. I am almost on the road again.