Eight years ago today, I graduated from Ohio University. I know this only because Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro tweeted about the anniversary of the 6/12/10 Backwards Down the Number Line, the first version of that song to really step out of its compositional boundaries — to go “type II” as they say./
It feels like several eons have passed. I was asked not too long ago by someone “how many chapters” there’d been in my life so far. It’s one of the better questions I’ve ever been asked. 6/12/10 remains one of the more significant turning points, one of the more pivotal moments between chapters– the passage from what seemed like a dreamworld into something far more involved and teeming. I’ve learned quite a bit since then about how to comport myself in the wilds of life. I’ve learned fleeting lessons about who I am. Not enough, but quite a bit.
Anyway, I think about chapters a lot.
And so I walked across the stage at commencement, said goodbye to friends and to a wonderful apartment — a kaleidoscopic city, all told — and hit the road for Cleveland and a series of events, some good and some bad.
I didn’t make it to the Phish show that night. That life-altering experience — my first trip to see the band — wouldn’t take place for another two months.
Earning a journalism degree, seeing Phish for the first time, landing my first job as a local reporter, seeing Phish for the second time: 2010 was riddled with the rapid-fire early stirrings of thematic elements that would follow me through my 20s. I’ll be 30 this fall, and I can already see the turning of the sun toward new adventures, new chapters.
Sandy 