In a week and a half I'll be moving out of Iowa. My parents will visit for a couple days and we'll be renting a trailer and taking my worldly possessions back to Michigan where I'll stay with them for a few months, while I finish up the last of my dissertation by remote before making the ultimate move to the UK.

So for now, I'm starting to pack and sort. I'm going through all the material possessions I've got here and packing away those things I want to keep, while selling or donating or throwing away everything I don't need. Since I'll be moving overseas before too long I have to be pretty ruthless about it. There are a lot of really neat dragon coffee table artwork and reference books that I've gotten as gifts from loved ones through the years, a lot of movies I've collected, a lot of dragon statues and miniatures, a lot of fantasy novels, old video games and consoles, and a lot of assorted other housewares that I'm forcing myself to part with, only keeping what's most important or meaningful to me.

My first trip to the consignment store a couple days ago went well, they took nearly everything and priced it in ways that seem very respectful, so it'll be nice to at least make some money from some of it and give somebody else the chance to enjoy the things that have served me well. It is, of course, a rather bittersweet process. Choosing to part with so many things that constitute the life I've made for myself here the past six years is hard. But it feels good in ways, too. Simplifying, getting rid of a lot of the material stuff that we all say we know isn't the most important stuff in life but get pretty attached to anyway. Weight reduction. Knowing what I've got to look forward to. Shedding the old scales and feathers while knowing that new ones, brighter than ever before, are going to be growing in soon.

Happy Independence Day everyone.