Saying Goodbye, Day 3

Today I said goodbye to braces. No more monthly orthodontist visits, no more "I can't eat this because it might break a bracket." But now there are retainers. Ugh.
As well as saying goodbye to a dental contraption, I said goodbye to orchestra class. Yesterday I had said goodbye to chorus. Those are two of my favorite classes, and they're taught by the same teacher, so I'm saying goodbye to him. The only difference between him and the other teachers is that he has taught me for the past five years. A bit scary to be leaving him.
Other people left behind: my science teacher and one of my favorite ballet teachers. That ballet teacher has taught me on and off since I was ten.
It's scary to be leaving people like this. It's people I see every week or even every day, and all they can say is "good luck, safe travels, make friends, have fun, tell me what happens, goodbye" and then I respond with a "thank you, bye." It doesn't feel like I'm leaving them, but at the same time, things are becoming realer and realer as it draws closer. Tomorrow is my last day at my school. Cupboards are being cleaned out and my family's trademark mess is slowly disappearing from the house. Soon it will be like other rented houses: nameless, without personality.
Tomorrow will be so final. I'm not looking forward to it. It's like this week is this bubble of light, and you know its skin is stretched, thin enough to pop any second. You know it will pop, you just don't know when. That's what this feels like. I don't know when everything will crash down on me. It may well be in the middle of Heathrow airport, where we're stopping on the way, but I don't know. I can't know. All I can do is try and prepare myself.

Realness scale: 9