Originally Posted by
wilson
It's a little bit crazy to consider my life's twists and turns since this thread started. When BD first pulled the trigger in December 2007, I was happily back in Atlanta after a two-year stint doing a MA at East Carolina. I had started a PhD at Emory, was reconnecting with friends & family and very happy to be back in my hometown, and although I was poor, I was generally happy. I wasn’t yet aware of some of the deep and tenacious unhappiness that would eventually take hold of me, nor of the eventual clarity that would come from wrestling with that unhappiness and working to figure out what to do about it.
Now almost 14 years later, I know more than ever that Atlanta is home, and that the aforementioned friends & family are everything. I'm not rich, but not poor anymore either. I now live like 3/4 of a mile as the crow flies from where I was living in Fall 2007, but now I own the house with the wife who I thought at the time might never exist. In the intervening years, I've met at least 10 or 12 LTE people in fleshspace, and of course the years between age 25 and age 39 have brought to me personal evolutions that are hard to articulate or put my finger on. For almost 14 years, a lot of things have changed continually, but somewhat weirdly, this thread continues to be a through line I keep returning to for camaraderie and conversation about everything and nothing. I still love Duke, but I barely watch Duke sports anymore; that's just one of my numerous priorities that have really shifted during this thread's existence. I now spend my time and earn my living educating children who are younger than this thread, and here I am, back again. I don't reckon I'll ever stop coming here, unless and until DBR turns out the lights someday.
I never did finish that PhD.