Crossed the Finish Line

It is 11:30 p.m. and I just submitted my final assignment (a 12 page paper on Creativity in the Workplace)! The invisible Homework Reminder Raven is no longer sitting on my shoulder, reminding me through every waking hour that I have something due. After perching there for over a year, it has finally taken flight to haunt someone else.

I am not yet relieved, because I can still feel the raven's claws, like phantom pain. I have been sitting at the computer all day and evening, writing that paper. It was almost like being a little kid on a long road trip: with each paragraph that I typed, I would say to myself, "Are we there yet?" Then I would look at the page number and see five or seven, and say to myself, "Not yet. Just a few more pages."

Now I am there, wherever there is. I think it is bed.