Sitting in Village Inn after over a year away feels like stepping into. time machine or visiting a museum display of the past. This space is unmoving. Even the people are still here. To give you context, I started coming to Village Inn by my campus about a decade ago. I came so often that I was deemed a regular. I’d sit and write and grade and prep for class and then go off to do what I do. I came less and less over the years and haven’t been here in a very long time. However, all the people I remember from day 1 are still here. The place looks and feels exactly the same. The food tastes exactly the same. I don’t know how to feel about it. I don’t know what I expect–comfort? familiarity? growth? I cannot tell you what I thought would be different. I’m different, so I thought they’d be too.
There is new tech. They’ve gone to the handheld registers for payment. That doesn’t change a single thing about the feel of the place; about the distance I’ve come from when I first started coming and the distance they haven’t. I see that more and more in my life. The people around me are entirely stagnant. It feels like if I don’t move forward, I’ll get stuck like they are. That is just the culture here, and I don’t come from this culture. Yet here I am, back where I started a decade ago, still writing and grading in this space that is largely unaffected by time. Still here with these same people who have not moved on because they have nothing to move on to.
I don’t want to be trapped here for the remainder of my existence. I want to grow. I want to feel new things. I want to experience new places. More than anything I want to believe that there is more out there for Lady Talis and I.
Some Thoughts:
- Witnessed my first rocket launch over AZ. It looks like this. Crazy. I followed it across the night sky and wondered what it was. Research (read: Google) helped me learn more.