View from the RWCMD SU Balcony

So this popped up on my Google Photos “memories” feature.

I miss this view

I miss the building

I miss the staff

I miss the students

I miss the banter, the chat, the smiles in the corridors.

I miss the excitement of the last week of term

I miss the joy of graduation, the silly hats, the parents and families accompanying our students around the building. Proud, awkward, happy, sad all at the same time, Both parents and students.

I miss that unique stillness as the building empties on graduation day and most of the college community gathers at St David’s Hall to celebrate our graduates.

I miss the bright, loud, joyfull explosion of the end of year celebration that rumbles on into the wee small hours.

I miss the physical RWCMD

I don’t miss the situation I found myself in when I took that picture.

The situation that drove me to spending much of my time on that balcony in an attempt to work and stay sane.

That I don’t miss.

Bittersweet.

Not because of all that I miss. Those things will return, maybe in a different form, maybe still tinged with sadness for this “lost” time, maybe better.

Bittersweet because that view and that moment is now linked to a sad situation that is now in my past.

I am now in a different form, still tinged with sadness for that lost time, but better.