I almost titled this post 6-7 because I was reminded again this weekend how much the number seven shows up in my life and because of the reason explained below.

For those who don’t understand the reference, it’s a line from the opening of a BBC mini-series called The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan as the eponymous Number Six. To quickly explain, he appears to be a former British spy who resigns and is then kidnapped and wakes up in a mysterious village where everyone is only referred to by a number. In almost every episode, he’s interrogated by a new Number Two and he inevitably asks who is Number One. In the intro he asks the question and is told he is, Number Six. There’s a slight pause there making it ambiguous if he’s a reminder or an explanation. In some episodes it appears as if he has escaped The Village, only to end up back where he started.

When my fellow students and I picked up our badges at our last rotation, we were a bit chagrined to find they didn’t actually have our names on them, simply “Student Number #”. Mine ironically enough was Number 6. I was the only one old enough to appreciate the reference. I suppose it was a bit appropriate though, since as students only there for 4 weeks, many did not bother to learn our names and if they did have probably forgotten them already.

Once the rotation ended on Friday, I headed to my apartment in Delaware. My lease runs out at the end of June and since my next rotation is here, it makes the most sense to stay here for until the end of the month and then relocate to an Airbnb when I have to. My wife had gone down earlier, in an attempt to sell some of the furniture I no longer need and that I didn’t want to bring back to New York. When she was leaving a bit of depression or ennui came over me. I went food shopping and returned to the mostly empty apartment feeling a bit out of spirits.

It took me a few minutes to realize why. When I had left at the end of April, I wasn’t sure if I’d be coming back to spend any more nights here or simply to do one last clear-out. I had had mixed emotions then, mostly bittersweet. It had been my abode for over 10 months while I was in school. It was where I spent the vast majority of my time over the last year, between sleeping and studying. I won’t say it had become a prison, but in some ways it was. So when I left after my exam on April 29th, I felt like I was escaping. Like Number Six, I had escaped The Village.

Or had I? Here I am, nearly two months later, returning to my apartment, again hoping to “escape” it, and most likely next weekend I will, to take one final load back to New York and then return one final time and spend the final two nights of the month here. So am I Number 6? And even after escaping this apartment, over the course of the next year, I’ll be returning to campus for End of Rotation exams during Call Back Weeks. So, much like Number Six, I’ll escape only to return. And yet, there really is an exit date here. In May of 2027 I will have graduated. I will have a schedule again that I have more control over. I will be back home full time. I will no longer be Number Six.

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