Time flies when you're having fun.

One of my original A-team scoopers stopped in the shop the other day. Usually around Spring break, I'll get an email or a visit from last summer's crew, checking in to let me know their plans for the coming summer. Since I'm now in year five, it only makes mathematical sense that some of those same crew members would be graduating college and getting 'real jobs'. Sure enough, my first hire 'Allison', pictured above in the middle, is graduating from Bentley in May. She's already got the first grown-up job offer in hand and is ready to conquer the working world.

All I know is the past four years flew by for me. Safe to say, they flew by for Allison too. My parting advice for her four years ago when she turned in her scoop, packed up mom's Subaru, and headed off to college was this - enjoy it because it goes by fast. College is a truly great slice of life. Certainly, you're meant to study hard, get good grades, figure out what you want to do with your professional life (at least to start), graduate with honors, and get the killer first job. I think that's pretty much understood. But as Mark Twain said, 'Don't let schoolin' interfere with your education.'

I can't say I yearn to be a college kid again, although I certainly missed college when I was forced to graduate and become a 'grown-up'. I think I missed it for about a decade before Labor Days finally stopped filling me with longing to do nothing but go to classes, study a little, and hang out with a giant bunch of buddies all the time. I got a tasty little reminder of those 'glory days' this week when one of my old college buddies emailed around some old photos from more years back than I'd care to count. It's from one of the couple of crazy spring breaks I partook in back in my days at Umass Amherst. Apologies in advance for the inappropriate hand gestures of some of my old cohorts. I think you'll recognize me in the front row. Or maybe you won't, it was quite a few years ago now.

I think the line in that now famous graduation speech by Mary Schmich from the Chicago Tribune sums it up pretty well. You may remember her speech 'Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)' as the cheesy song by Baz Luhrmann a few years back. I've spared you the downbeat...

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Sure enough.