obliquity of the ecliptic. almost six years ago i walked into the nikki g lounge at mojo and really started my college career. two weeks of late orientation and homesickness had made me start to wonder about my place at michigan but at that first ccf meeting i met people who welcomed me and made me feel comfortable. this past weekend, many of those old faces were gathered together again, in a coronado hotel banquet room, for the occassion of ritchie and grace's wedding.



it was pretty crazy. ccf circa 1996. gathered in my hometown. standing together outside on the curb, wondering what we should do next. some things don't ever change. some things do. everyone was spread out over the country and i had not kept in contact with many of them and had to get basic life facts down. this ccf get together was for a memorable once-in-a-lifetime occassion but it felt like the annual christmas banquet, especially as we stood at the end of the day, taking pictures by gender and by class.



how odd it is, to see faces from the past but feel like it was just last week. some people had gotten a tad pudgier, a bit older, but not really. nobody had changed all that much, nobody had become unrecognizably different, physically or mentally. rolling into the wedding was like opening a box of mementos and being surprised, yet familiar, with each item. "oh, there's chris tsou. there's james! is that lenny? swee's singing? is that manfred?"



even though i don't know much about these people or how their lives are or where they've gone, i know enough about them to be entirely comfortable just hanging out. like we never left before. will there be a gathering like this again? who knows. this one was a definite surprise and i can't really think of another occassion when this particular group will have reason to share the same space again. but it makes you nostalgic to be standing with people that you shared good times with, that you've progressed with and grown with. people that remind you the past and the present aren't always that far away. [pictures]



ganked "obliquity of the ecliptic" from pz's blog because i like the sound of it and the meaning. it is the polar tilt that causes the earth to have seasons.