And Just Like That, Fifteenth-Year of First Semesters at Fairfield University Comes to a Close: It Doesn't Seem Possible, But Here We Are

I hosted another Explorations Summit yesterday, welcoming another generation of potential teachers to southern Connecticut. We did round-tables, and all the inquiry projects were presented on a cold, yet productive morning. The students were exhausted, and I could feel their days after the holiday break, here comes finals, energy. Phew. They are exhausted (and I suppose I am wiped out, too). 

I came home to watch NCAA volleyball, after stopping at a mall to get Mimi Sue's birthday gift. Malls? What happened to them? I feel like I grew up at Sibley's, a May Company, during a time when Malls were the thing. It was a ghost town, and I was spooked by the lack of stores and the evidence of a time that is no longer. 

Then again, the Great Northern Mall, which basically helped me fund my undergraduate degree at Binghamton University, is a way that is no longer. What once was thriving, booming, and thrilling, is now a relic of the past. Crazy to think such a culture is not even a figment of the new generation's memories. It was good to me and it took all my energy not to treat myself to a Cinnabon.  

Of course, this puts all of us into a consumer culture. I don't thing today's generation consumes in the same way as I made commentary on a student's hoody that read "All Boys Lie," in which I learned it was a brand that I never heard of. All boys and girls do lie.

I'm heading into this Friday ready to grade, making big decisions for a vehicular change on a dying hulk, and simply thinking about the routines of it all. Teaching excellence remains an excellence I believe in and I'm invested unto that. 

What a life. And it's NCAA Volleyball season so I have that distraction. More to come on Saturday.