Remembering

I tend to review my life and actions on a fairly regular basis. Generally, I reflect on the what I've done and where I want to "go from here" every 5 to 7 months. This coincides nicely with Christmas and my birthday.

Then I hit 40....a couple of years ago. I find myself reflecting much more often now.

Last year: I was frantically trying to put my work life in a box (literally) in order to have it viewed for tenure and promotion and I was working on finishing some chapters in a book. 'Nuff said.

Five years ago: (2001): I had survived my first winter in Buffalo, NY and was not looking forward to the second one. However, the summer was SO beautiful.

Ten years ago: (1996). I had just moved to Athens, GA and was excited and scared to start graduate school. I had an assistantship. I'd just discovered this new thing called the "internet." I had e-mail for the first time ever. I had access to a great library. I knew I would be WARM in the winter. My body loved the climate. I was so excited to be going back to school and to be able to do it full time.

Fifteen years ago: (1991). I'd been in Tokushima, Japan for four months. I was working very hard teaching English as a Foreign Language to adults. I was also playing very hard. I had just participated in the first Awa Odori festival. Three days of parades and dancing. What a memory. I had some of the best friends I would meet in my life. I didn't know that then, but I'm still in touch with two of the three main teachers I ended up hanging out with.

Twenty years ago: (1986). I'd graduated from college in May. I was working as a travel staff employee for a Lutheran Bible camp. We went all over Texas and spent one week in Louisiana. Each week meant a different camp. Not a lot of sleep during that summer, but I could handle it. I was just 22. Here again I remember working hard and playing as much as was possible with a 6 day work week.

Twenty-five years ago: (1981): I was working for my dad that summer. I played tennis almost every night with one of my best friends. He was leaving in the fall to go to college. I wished I could have graduated with his class. However, I needed to survive one more year of high school before I could go to college. I was gearing up for survival mode.

Thirty years ago: (1976): I was 12. It was the year of the bicentennial. I remember wearing a lot of red, white, and blue. I was going into junior high. The word on the street was that the language arts teacher was a strict and a little weird. I wondered what people considered "weird." I was sure I was considered "weird" by some of my classmates so maybe being weird wasn't such a bad thing..... In addition, the social studies teacher was definitely nice looking. I'd met him a couple of years before when one of my friends went to see him....Our family went on our only family vacation ever. To South Dakota. It was pretty cool. We saw Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse and the Corn Palace and visited a lot of relatives. At least it felt like we visited a lot of relatives. A couple of these relatives lived on a pig farm. All night I could hear the pigs opening and closing the lids on their feed troughs.