“Back in the day” is a phrase that came into broad usage suddenly and spread quickly maybe a decade ago. I remember hearing a character on Entourage (HBO) use it and thinking that it was already on the brink of becoming a cliché. Which is too bad, because I like it.
It’s a human thing to attach emotion to particular words and phrases. We hate some words and others evoke nostalgia. There are words that work for me like chalk squeaking on a blackboard (for example: blog, which is why I use weblog). Others I adore. In grade school Spanish class I fell in love with the word pupitre. It still makes me smile.
Lately I seem to be awash in nostalgia more generally. I’m hoping it will subside sooner rather than later, but for the moment, here’s my question. According to the statistics quite a lot of people read this weblog. If you’re reading it and you were once a student of mine, I’m wondering if you’d be so kind as to send me an email and re-introduce yourself. I taught many hundreds of people over fourteen years — first at Princeton, when I was a graduate student, then at the University of Michigan, then at WWU, but currently I’m in touch with only five or so of them. I also student taught and then taught fourth grade in Austria.
Call it idle curiosity or nostalgia or whatever. I’d like to hear from you. To make it easier: email me. Or comment here. Whatever works.
Illustration by Elvira Wolven Krieger @DeviantArt
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