This past year has been one of lots of changes, pivot after pivot. Some of these changes were expected--for example, on many levels, I wasn't surprised to be severed from my job back in February. But many of these changes have been unexpected and/or worked out differently from how I anticipated. Even my job loss was different--in Nov. of 2021, I was told that I would be the head of the new campus, and it had all changed by February. I had seen that process happen with others, so there, too, I wasn't surprised.
This week brought news that surprises me again. Of all the possible disruptions to my plans, the bulldozing of seminary housing was not anything I would have anticipated. To be honest, I'm still reeling a bit.
On Tuesday, seminary students had a meeting with the seminary president. The seminary has just been given the go-ahead by the DC zoning board to proceed with building plans: a new high rise dorm with a parking garage. This development will be good for the seminary in the long run (probably), but it has implications for my housing. My apartment building is one of the ones that will be bulldozed to make room for the new building.
I had hoped that it might take a long time, but the plan is to have residents move by May so that construction can begin. Where will we go? They are still working on a plan--but the president sounded quite firm in his expectation that we will be vacating the building by some point in May. I am trying to stay open to all the possibilities.
I realize that the situation is still very fluid. The president tried to reassure us that everyone who wants to live on campus will be able to do so, even though he doesn't have a plan. I've heard through the grapevine that it might be a hotel or nearby apartments. I can't get a sure fix on how many students live in the newer building that's more dorm-like--could some of those units be used to house us?
Any solution won't be quite as convenient as what I have now, and it's hard for me to say what will be a dealbreaker and what won't until I have more details, like price. And I suppose it is possible that something will slow down along the way, and I'll still be in this apartment in a year. It will be just my luck that the slowdown happens after we've all moved out, and the building sits empty, month after month. Sigh.
It seems unreal to me that it's December, that I'm listening to Christmas music. It seems like just yesterday that I took a break in the middle of unpacking boxes to listen to George Winston's Autumn and put autumnal lights across the marble window sill. It was late August, and I wondered if it was too early for autumnal lights. Now I have a variety of Christmas lights and trees.
When I was younger, high school age, my family had moved a lot--and we often spent part of the holiday season wondering and speculating where we would be this time next year. It was both a hopeful and an anxious process. It's how I feel now, hopeful and anxious--and determined to make the most of whatever time I have left in this apartment that charmed me from the minute I first saw it.
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