What I love about my job!

Ok- so I get to travel lots of places with my job here at Purdue. I've been to Florida, California, Colorado, Texas... but this past week, I got to go to Carmel, IN. Now, many of you are already asking how that ties in to the title of this post and are thinking what could be so exciting about Carmel, IN? It's only an hour away from here, I can go anytime I want to. (And no, it wasn't because there is a Vera Bradley store there. :) )

The thing I love the most is reacquainting with old friends. This past week, my student group ROCS (reaching out for computer science) was invited to give presentations in the computer science classes at Carmel HS. By the way, it is the largest HS in Indiana and has 4100 students. And so we traveled to Carmel for 2 days! The first day there it occurred to me that one of my old college buddies is a teacher there- and even though the school is so huge, I should ought to try to hunt him down! So I sent him an email letting him know we were going to be back in the building the following day and was checking to see if he had any time that I might be able to catch up with him.

So, Friday afternoon, I was able to reconnect with an old friend. There's just something so heartwarming about that. It was so much fun reminiscing. See, we met almost 14 years ago (wow!) when we were just know it all college kids and were paired together as co-counselors at the now famous Boiler Kids Camp. :) We went on to be the directors of the camp together for a couple years after that too. So many good times! The good news is that we have periodically kept in touch- either directly or through Decina. Small world- she was my college roommate, worked as a substitute for us one summer at camp, now also lives in Carmel and is an OB nurse. So, she sometimes sees Mark and his wife when they are in having babies- or now that they have kids the same age, they run into each other at the ball fields. Such a small world! But anyway... i'll post a pic of the good old camp days if i can find one and scan it in (those were the days before digital photography! )

But anyway- that's what I love the most- relationships. My job lets me meet all kinds of people and find mutual connections. It's like game. (OK- its kind of like the Kevin Bacon game ;-) ) But I love it. I have a knack for remembering people and names and faces. Maybe even to a bit of a psychotic level. :-)

So thanks Purdue! That's what I love about my job!