"How do you pick up the threads of an old life?"

Beginning of fall semester, George Mason University. Leaving home early to get a parking space. Green and yellow banners everywhere. Music blaring over loudspeakers in the quad, as slightly lost freshmen ask you for directions. Tables of student organizations lining the pavement. The Johnson Center thronged with people, and a 45-minute queue in the bookstore. People stuffing leaflets into your hands. The smell of free nachos and the splash of the fountain. This place hasn't changed that much. There are still crepe myrtles blooming in front of Enterprise Hall.

I have a tuition waver as part of my teaching contract, so I'm taking a sight-singing class. Hopefully a pleasant diversion and a way to fill a gap in my education. Very strange to be sitting in class again, and a freshman class at that - like going back 8 years but finding I'm not the same person anymore. I can relate to Frodo.

Tomorrow, I'll be standing at the whiteboard facing my own students.