Ritual, Honor & Continuity
What carries forward
Desks half-stacked, enough still out for my kids doing this final final, I’ve already turned my calendar page to January.
My attention’s being pulled there.
But I’m still in December, this last day, this final final with students.
Naming this final stretch has clarified what I’ve accomplished but the meaning hasn’t been marked - yet.
This is the part I almost always skip.
Right here, where my time’s scarce, my efficiency’s rewarded, where the bell erases this opportunity, I realize:
This is my last chance to choose completion.
The choice’s binary.
Either:
skip the ending or
mark it.
Excuses whisper.
“Jeff, you just ran out of time.”
“The bell decides, not you.”
“Momentum always overides your meaning.”
“Your ritual’s inefficient.”
But if I mark it, I can:
name what mattered,
honor what was,
create continuity and
intentionally complete my arc.
The difference I notice is between:
marking or dragging myself out,
honoring or clinging,
finishing or fading.
If I skip, my
exhaustion sleep fixes nothing,
the semester slips through my hands, and,
asking turns to, “Did that even matter?”
Delayed consequences aren’t dramatic or loud. They just accumlate and corrode.
“My unmarked endings don’t disappear. They follow me.”
Choosing to mark is expensive.
It costs:
time
efficiency
emotional exposure
going against system norms
But
my meaning’s sealed
my fatigue’s softened instead of calcified
my learning traveled.
Will my semester be completed — or merely survived?