Blast From the Past

Have you ever had one of those moments that instantly takes you back to your younger self? Tonight, I experienced two wonderful blasts from the past, and it’s been both heartwarming and nostalgic.

First, I got to reconnect with one of my best friends—a friend who’s like a sister to me. We met when I was 19, as summer camp counselors, just living out the last bits of our childhood. On our very first day working onsite, she was busy trying to plan activities, and I was just excited to play with all the camp supplies from my own childhood memories. I offered to do all the planning at home for the first two weeks while our director was out, if I could just take that day to play. She trusted me (though she later admitted she wasn’t entirely sure at first), and it turned out that moment set the stage for a lifelong friendship. Over two decades later, here we were, laughing together at one of our old favorite spots, reminiscing about all the dumb stuff we used to do when we were younger.

Tonight was great because we also revived EduMatch Connect (formerly known as “Tweet and Talk”). Our community chats were a weekly thing from 2015 to 2020, and tonight we brought them back. It felt like we never missed a beat. We had original EduMatchers Leslie Fagin aka The Faginator, Dr. Josue Falaise, and Jeff Bradbury on the panel, with EduMatch COO Mandy Froehlich moderating the chat. Despite it being Mother’s Day weekend, members of our EduMatch family showed up, and it reminded me just how special this community is.

Feeling nostalgic yourself or interested in connecting with an amazing group of educators? Join us for our next EduMatch Connect on June 13th at 6 p.m. Eastern, where we’ll dive into Digital Citizenship. Sign up here: events.edumatch.org/edumatch-connect. We’d love to see you there!

Oh, and one more thing—I kept the nostalgia going after dinner with a playlist of throwback songs. One of my favorite things used to be rolling down the windows and cranking up the music, particularly with songs that made you feel you were dreaming. These were my picks:

• “I’d Die Without You” by P.M. Dawn

• “Please Don’t Go” by Boyz II Men

• “Another Planet” by Jawan Harris ft. Chris Brown

• “Angel in Disguise” by Brandy

 I planned to finish off with “Free Yourself” by Fantasia, but my ears decided they’d had enough before I could even hit play.

This. Is. Adulting!!!

OpenAI. (2025, May 10). ChatGPT (May 10 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/