Finals week feeling

The past few days I’ve been recalling a satirical “finals week” poem which was forwarded around this time of year, back at dear auld ISU. Particularly these two lines:

Sell my books and load the car,
Give me a beer and a big cigar

The rest of it is mostly a lot of general cursing about university faculty and the nuisance of things like classes, tests, actual learning, etc.; I’ll skip all that in the interests of a family-friendly blog though if you want to read the rest I imagine it’s out on the intarweb somewhere.

Meanwhile, I haven’t taken a final exam in more than 11 years, and frankly I didn’t take that many of them even when I was in college because so many of my core classes were project-based studios.

Yet I think there’s still a persistent relevance in that idea of finishing up the year and washing your hands of the whole business, for better or worse, and then loading up the sleigh (or Toyota Camry) before getting out of town. Particularly as I’ve always continued to skedaddle out of my own home, whether in central Iowa or Ohio, to go back and spend Christmas with family throughout my adult life thus far.

This year is no different, and it’s indeed about that time once again. Of course, I’ll back in Cleveland before the “old year” is completely finished, for that calendrical stub left over between Christmas and New Year’s Day (the product of having multiple Solstice-related observances on separate days, none of them on the actual Solstice itself).

But, in the meantime, best wishes, and a beer, big cigar and/or whatever celebratory indulgence suits you to everyone.