Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, life goes on......or so says the popular Beatles tune.  These familiar lyrics are an apt description of our lives and the lives of other military families whose careers require regular relocation:  we know each move is temporary before we even have our official orders in hand, our time in the job has an end date from the moment we start, and once we leave the cycle will repeat itself both for us and the people replacing us then for the people after us and them and so on into perpetuity.  We know we have a limited amount of time in which we can put our mark on our new position before someone else comes in and tries to do it even better.  That is simply the way it is.  So yes, life does go on after we are no longer here.

Today is my first day of not working since I started my job in August 2011. At the moment I'm waiting for our packers to arrive rather than sitting in what I still think of as my office.  I may not be there but I'm sure the usual Monday morning hum is continuing without me just as it did with my predecessor and the one before her.  From the moment I first sat down at my desk on that hot August morning, I knew the job was only temporary.  Time is relative but because I was in the position for longer than most people, I was able to spend the first two years focusing on my actual job rather than thinking about what would happen "after".  But in the past few months that "after" came creeping up on me like an unspoken cloud hanging over my head.  Soon I found myself sitting in meetings and planning sessions talking and thinking about things that would only take place after my departure.  As my mind drifted during particularly long or arduous meetings I found myself wondering whether or not I even cared.  At first I did, but later I didn't and simply tried to feign interest in the subject at hand.  Until I couldn't any longer.  By mid-December I may have physically been present but mentally I was checking out.

But now, none of any of this matters any more. For better or worse we've left our mark on this place and our replacements have arrived, are settling in, and we are already being forgotten--which is a good thing.  We're moving on to our next post where we can start this process all over again.  And the process of starting over will happen here as well, like it has before us and will long after us.

So,

 OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, life goes on, brah!

Lala how life goes on....

OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA, life goes on, brah!

Lala how the life goes on.