You can never swim twice in the same river

It is remarkable how life is in constant change, but most of the time change is punctuated, with long expanses of time with relative stability and then occasional bursts of sudden and radical change, which can turn your customs upside down or make your daily life unrecognizable. A few days back, I reflected on the impact of the corona virus pandemic in our lives, particularly by virtue of its generalized effects, where everyone has been affected in similar ways. But today I would like to think about the other kind of changes, the ones where someone makes a decision that changes significantly their lives and, to a lesser extent, of those surrounding them.

Photo: Anica Simunec at pixabay

Today is the last day in the office of a colleague that has been in the house for more than 15 years, and the last 8 working very close to me. Space projects tend to be fairly long, typically 10 to 15 years, so it is not unusual for someone to work for a research institution for a very long period and then to run out of contract and have to find greener pastures. This evening we will go out and have dinner together, as we have done tens of times over the course of the years, but this time it will probably have a bitter-sweet taste, because it will be the last one.

I find it interesting how changes have different effect if you are the agent of the change or just a spectator. In her case, her life is going to change completely: she will move to a different town, get installed in a different house, become part of a new work team, her kids will go to another school and will make new friends, everything will be new, and the people from her previous life, the old places and customs, will become a memory or, in the best of cases, a rare curiosity if she ever comes visiting. For the rest of us, life will continue mostly unchanged, except in the moments where we find a reason to talk to her... only to see that she is not there anymore. The situation lends itself to the comparison with a death, although in this case we will know that she is well and fine, and we will have a chance to give her a call, write an email, or zoom with her. But still, it will take us all some time to learn not to count on her for the things that we used to.

I am sorry if the post has turned out to be a bit gloomy, but I can assure you that I am happy for her, because finding a new job in these circumstances and I am pretty sure that she will enjoy the new place, possibly more than the one because she will be living a lot closer to her parents, which are starting to get on in years and will be delighted to have a chance to see their grandchildren much more often. For the rest of us, some have already find new projects to work on (like myself), others are still pending, but we will all miss her, and eventually learn to live without her.

On a completely different matter, the good news is that I made significant progress with my course over the weekend and I am quite excited with the results. Tomorrow I will have my weekly meeting at the university, so let us see how that goes. Cheers!