This Is Amazing To Me: Blink of an Eye. They Grow Up, and the Stories, Well...They Are Intertwined. I Guess This is What @CWPFairfield Is All About At This Point

I hired Jalen this summer. He was the son of good friends and always a wonderful kid who, by chance, is heading to Princeton in the Fall. He's been one of the most loyal writers and was with us since his elementary school days. In fact, I found a photo of him reading his work to his mom (who, by the way, graduated from our School's Counselor Education program). Fast forward. He's now a high school graduate.

This year, we have a young man of my colleague also entering the CWP tradition. All of his siblings have been through the programs, and I started thinking, "Wait. Don't I have pictures of Jalen, my summer hire, and this young man from a picnic in my backyard?"  It took me a while, but I found one. It was Ish and Jemma. Jemma and Ish using all my Risk game soldiers to create a fantasy land in my house while we played badminton out back. Now here's the kicker. Little Ish is now in the lab, and Jalen is one of his teachers. He's like, "Wait! That's my little sister!" 

That's how we roll. Well, that's how time rolls. He was the age of his little sister when he first started CWP. It flies by too fast. The little ones are now in 4th grade - hard to imagine that this was taken almost 5 years ago. Five years goes by very, very fast. 

And what a blessing to have the little, brilliant minds in the vicinity of CWP work. Even better? How wonderful to hire CWP alumni to work with the next generation of writers. 

I'm not feeling old. You feeling old? 

I guess we keep it all in the family...which is good...the way it ought to be, especially when you're setting out to create an American family of love, diversity, inclusivity, equity, and joy. 

Today is starting out great. But the heat. Ugh. Every year a miserable heat wave. Phew.