The Circle Goes Round Again

It has been nearly a year since we left, and we are preparing to return. A week from tomorrow, we will drive back to Chicago, a trip we made many times to begin the school year, or a new semester. This time, however, we are returning at the end of the school careers of several of our former students. It is graduation time in Napaskiak.

We have been planning to do this, in some halting way, since we left. We promised to return, for my wife's graduation in Juneau, and for the kids that I first met as seventh graders in Napaskiak. Although my wife just completed her degree program, with a Master's degree in Special Education, the Juneau trip has fallen by the wayside. The commencement at the University of Alaska/Southeast conflicts with commencement in PKA. Guess how long it took to make that decision?

We will be in the village long enough to celebrate Mothers' Day with our friends, and we intend to do some visiting in Anchorage as well.

It won't last nearly as long as we would like, because our lives here don't have the flexibility that used to permit us long, leisurely vacations. Michigan is a more jealous mistress of our time than was Alaska. We need to get back, and we need to go to work, and we need to tend to our responsibilities here. But for a little while, the three of us will go back home again. For a little while...