Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on... Who remembers that show from the early eighties, The Littlest Hobo? It was about a dog (a German Shepherd) who roamed from town to town helping people. At the end of every episode, they would turn round to thank their canine friend, and he'd be already gone. Then that classic theme tune would kick in:
Maybe tomorrow I'll try to settle down;
Until tomorrow I'll just keep movin' on.
That was one of a small genre of character-who-moves-from-town-to-town-helping-people-and-then-disappearing shows. The other ones were The Incredible Hulk and its forerunner The Fugitive. Always moving on. (Although I must point out that the German Shepherd, unlike David Banner and Richard Kimble, was not being pursued by the cops, unless I forgot that bit.)
It feels like all I have been doing for the last few years is moving on from place to place. Never stayed in any place long. Yesterday I moved on again. On the one hand, it's exciting and adventurous, but on the other you just wish for some stability, to be spared the little heartaches that accumulate every time you have to say farewell.
Yesterday I was saying goodbye to a school I've been doing my training at for the last few months. To be honest, the only thing I'll really miss is my wee form class. I'd take the register every morning and every afternoon, and they all had their own little way of answering.
"Kevin."
"Hello."
"James."
"Aye, sir."
"Harriet."
"Yyyyyyyy-es, sir."
"Harris."
"Arrrr."
Of course, when I told them one day that the reason I couldn't stop smiling during the register was because I loved the way all their individual personalities came shining through in the way they answered me each morning, it all became a bit of a joke that wore on too long.
I won't pretend that, like the Littlest Hobo, I've rescued anyone from any great tragedy or made the world a better place in any of my brief sojourns. And though when I left school for the last time yesterday, I tried to do the trick where they turned around to thank me and I was already out of sight, I couldn't make it out fast enough, and they just wondered what the hell their three-hundred-pound schoolteacher was doing trying to squeeze inconspicuously through a half-open door.
I have another interview on Monday. If it works out, maybe that'll be the place to settle down for longer than a few months. But until tomorrow, I guess I'll just keep movin' on.
Dave
9:46:17 AM 
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