Living in a college town means lots of friends who come into our lives for a year or two and then move on. The most recent was a student at the high school who has appeared in Banjoeblog a few times. Talia came with her family while her dad did a stint at Cornell. She was a treat to teach, and she was my companion on the walk to school for a month when she became a neighbor in January. This was the first time I've had company for my commute, and despite her being notoriously late, we only got to school after the first bell once. I don't think I ever had to wait more than 10 minutes for her, but one day I got to the bottom of the hill 30 seconds before her. She laughed and said, "You're late."
The pressure was on when she agreed to leave the house an hour early so we could take in a chimes concert on the way. We made it and she got to try out the levers and enjoy the view.
Emma stayed over at her house for the last night and joined us for the last walk. I put her in charge of getting them out the door.
That evening, I stopped by to say a proper farewell, she didn't have time to walk home because she still needed to pack. She rushed out of our classroom after two going away parties to catch the bus home without so much as a tearful goodbye. She was finishing up the packing with her sister and mother with an anxious friend trying to coax them to along and get to the airport in time. That last bag needed some coaxing to close. I carried all the bags down to the cars without too much coaxing.
Back in Israel with her cat after 18 months.
Talia managed to learn a few banjo tunes from me in between school, skiing, track, travel, and other clubs and activities. I'm looking for a new banjo student and Timur likes how he looks holding it but isn't too interested in learning. We'll see.
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