My grad school years

Two weeks from now I'll be taking Court and Amanda with me to a reunion of faculty and students from my grad program. It's shaping up to be a wild time.

It may end up being one of those times when Dr. S. is invited but Kim (insert-Trop's-maiden-name) shows up.

I left home for graduate school in 1984 without a car, just $200 in savings, and an assistantship netting just $450 a month. I was 23 years old. By the time I left in 1992, I was a married- pregnant- thirtysomething- ABD- college administrator.

For some reason I rarely --and I mean rarely-- think about grad school. I think it's because the years after were so awful they eclipsed anything that came before. ~sigh.

Anyhow...

Not surprisingly, the reunion has triggered memories; things I haven't really thought about in a really long time; things such as:

I was an orientation leader with this woman...

I touched this guy...

My next-door neightbor pulled a murder-suicide on his wife and kids...

I survived an apartment building fire... and a tornado...

I broke up a fight between a drunk man with a gun and his drunk wife...