Throwback to 2005, Three Years Before These Blogs & the Influence of Jean Wolph and the @LouisvilleWP ... A Family Before I Began Building Family on My Own

I received an email from Jean Wolph yesterday with a photo she found while going through all the years she directed the Louisville Writing Project. On my dining room table in Connecticut is a Christmas basket she made me while I was a graduate student at the University. I love it and cherish it, just like I do her. The note simply said, "Great seeing you in Columbus. I found this photo of you presenting at a Louisville Writing Project in 2005." 

I don't remember that shirt, but remember the buzz cut. Of course, now I think about every item of my past as "Where was I? What was going on? What was I presenting on? Did I know then I'd be where I am now?"

In 2005, I was 33 years old. I don't remember being 33 years old, because that was a long while ago. And it was before we hit Facebook and blogs and documenting a life digitally. All my notes from those days are in scrapbooks and notebooks, which are stored away and not as readily available. Two years after this photo, I'd depart for Syracuse to do my doctorate. Four years earlier, I would see the class of 2001 graduate - young people I spent four years teaching. 

And here's the irony. I also heard from Viet Tran, class of 2001, yesterday who is investing in a restaurant in Louisville near where Sue McV lives. I'm hoping he, Chitunga, Alyssa, and Sue can get dinner together this weekend. 

I don't remember the glasses, but do remember wearing diamonds with my shaved head. I miss the goatee without grays. I also recognize the happiness that comes from any work with the National Writing Project. My addiction began there. I'm tanned, so I'm guessing the conference had to be a back-to-school kick-off, soon after visiting my family in Syracuse and likely reading a Harry Potter book in my parents pool for a week - a rare time of sitting still and resting. 

And I look like Dylan. I imagine I look like Sean in 10 years, too. So crazy how it flies by. But tonight I have week two of the winter session class so need to get to work. Here's to memories and connections out of the blue. They are always best!