Today the sight of an electric kettle plugged in and boiling away on the floor of an inner hallway catapulted me several years back in time. When first I came to work here, my new department head and mentor boiled the kettle on the floor and made us a cup of tea.
Some things don't change. There are still too few electrical outlets.
Other things do change, slowly and imperceptibly. Then something raises the awareness of the one-way arrow of time passing.
After that first cup of tea, I worked with my mentor for several years. Then she died in an accident. Now she's been gone for an indeterminate time. Over fifteen years, I think.
As I gazed at the kettle and cogitated, a colleague came along to unplug it and make tea. I smiled as I watched her, now a middle-aged matron with two -- or is it three sons?
She was just a girl when we met. She started here as a part-time tutor, and took her teacher training a few years later. Now it's been a few years since she took the coordinator's job.
Term end again. How many terms has it been? I don't want to count them. But I'm still happy here -- still feel a sense of belonging, just as I did when I had that first cup of tea so many years ago from the kettle that boiled on the floor.
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