Rounding Out & Finishing Up - almost!

As the end of my JET contract draws near, the past few months have unfortunately become a whirlwind of stresses for me.

 I started this year with a countdown calendar to home in mind, but recently time has seemed to be moving at warp speed and it's almost time to go home!  Though simple enough to begin the process of packing up while you're still crossing off the months, now that 'departure' is down to a matter of weeks the intensity of the organisation required has more than tripled.

Back in February, all that was really required of me to get this "leaving JET" ball rolling was to sign up for and attend the Returnee JETs Conference in Yokohama and "start thinking about things".  Fast forward to today and it's a mess of physically packing up my home, trying to sell my belongings, throwing away trash, making plans for life back in Australia, arranging cut off dates for phone/internet/insurance, setting a date to return my leased car, acquiring police clearances and other necessary paperwork, deciding on and booking flights home, spending time achieving the last of my Japan goals, enjoying multiple "last times" with friends, filling out forms for tax/pension/banking/changing address, preparing final classes, talking with my successor and answering their questions about life in Japan, and emailing my supervisor about every decision/requirement at every twist and turn!

And all of this comes on top of normal scheduled classes and daily/weekly routines.  It's no real surprise then that I'm feeling stressed at the moment and that moving home is turning out to be a helluva lot harder than moving here ever was!

Essentially having "one foot out the door" is both sad and exhilarating.  It's frustrating and tiring to be tending to two worlds at once.  It lends you a sense of feeling carefree while at the same time reminding you that there's a tonne to be done before that's actually the case.

As excited as I am to be returning home to teach in an Australian setting again, my final classes here are starting to roll around with greater frequency.  The students seem sad that I'm leaving and a few well-timed tears-from-the-crowd has often taken me off guard and forced me to put on a brave classroom front too.  To think that this aspect of things will only get worse before it gets better is depressing.  Last week I taught some final classes at one of my elementary schools.  This week I will teach some of my final classes at the other elementary school.  Next week I will teach final classes at my junior high school.  And the week after that will be my last eikaiwa class.  Throw in a few "sayonara parties" with fellow JETs, my schools, my eikaiwa ladies, my Board of Education and lastly a random selection of friends and you've got one mega tear-fest on your hands.

People keep telling me, "but look on the bright-side, you get to go home soon!"  And it's true!  Yes, I do and I truly rejoice in the fact.  It's just that trying to organise, arrange and set-up life in Australia while I'm still 6000km away is a bit of an arduous task.  It's challenging to solidify plans when you're so far away.  It's hard to get paperwork completed when you're not even in the country.  It's awkward to have to discuss important career or lifestyle choices via email because you've no other way to effectively get it done.  And it's scary to be leaving a full-time salaried job for the financial uncertainty of life back at home, in the middle of the third term, in the middle of winter!

And some days I just wish time would stand still for a while and allow me to catch up on my favourite TV shows or have a nap without wasting a few precious packing hours or happy fun times with friends.  I wish my clothes and shoes would sort and pack and send themselves.  I wish the paperwork I need to fill out before I go would just magically appear on my desk and complete itself in legible block letters in black or blue pen while I take a breather instead.  I wish the items in my drawers and on my bookshelves would decide what needs to be trashed and what needs to be tidied.  That my dishes would wash themselves, that the bathroom would become grime-free overnight, that the world would indeed quit spinning while it waits for me to get my shit sorted out.  Too much to ask?

Sigh.

Zzzzzzz.