Sabbatical Accidental

You'd think I had given up on Camp Mix by now... Perhaps I should have...

From the look of this blog, it would be easy to think that all progress on that project had ceased. It would have been easy to assume the worst (that I had died, duh) and write off the whole idea as another one of my forever unfinished prospects. Far too easy, actually. In fact, I think that's exactly what I did. But lo and behold, here I am posting a new entry that carries the shamelessly hopeful message: "Camp Mix is dead! Long live Camp Mix." Or something to that effect.

In other words, I'm still here. There's piles of music files fermenting on my hard drive back at home. There is an unsquishable modicum of tradition still present in my head that is otherwise known as a Completionist's Itch, a stubborn perfectionism. OCD. Whatever you want to call it, it has brought back this desire to finish what I've set in motion. It's a desire that never really left.

I am not at home right now. I am in Guam. This semi-unplanned furlough in the south pacific has so far been an amazingly refreshing experience. I could not have chosen a better time to leave home for 2 months. And during this time I have away from the common distractions and stresses of the mainland, I am committed to reevaluating my motivations, to resetting my goals and to tying off loose ends.

One of these "loose ends" is Camp Mix '15. It was meant to be an end-all, be-all Grand Finale to the 10-year Camp Mix tradition. In a manner of speaking, it still will be. There is no way I'm continuing Camp Mixes after this year. That part of my life will be behind me. However, I cannot logically just let go of something that I have put so much effort into. Something that, in the 10-year-long scheme of things, is already almost complete. I have been planning to end Camp Mix on its 10th iteration since its 7th. I have pages of ideas and articles and, as mentioned, piles of music files. They've been waiting a long time. And so have I.

This past year may have turned out differently than I ever would have expected. I've since realized that sometimes blessings can truly come in the most unexpected of ways, out of the most terrible of situations. I'm so glad that my life is beginning to really change. Sure, there are old parts of my life that I will deeply miss (one of them I cannot imagine ever forgetting). But when the time comes to say finally goodbye to Camp Mix -- a staple of my adolescence and of so many other things -- I will be ready.

And I won't look back.