benlehman

I am now done with FALCON.

I was officially done a week ago, but I hung around IUP for a week and kept taking Chinese classes. This last week, however, I'm setting aside to prepare things to send to America, etc. (If you want chinese stuff, now is when you let me know.)

This has been an amazing, terrible year. I mean "terrible" there in the old context of the word. This year has seen my mother's illness, my brother's imprisonment, and an enormous amount of pressure on me. Despite or perhaps because of this, I have had some of the greatest moments of pure joy in my entire life, and the entire experience has reconfigured my world-view in appalling ways. The simple joy of studying so intensively -- of waking up every morning and *knowing what I had to do* was amazing. I will be able to describe it in a year or so, but not right now. Too fresh.

And now its over.