I clearly remember waking up the morning of 9/11/01.

I was a sophomore at the University of Central Florida then. My phone had been buzzing next to my head for a few minutes, the same person calling over and over. I kept hitting ignore. Naturally, I’d stayed up too late the night before, doing God-knows-what – after all, I was a college kid!

After multiple phone calls finally woke me up, I saw that it was my friend Marie, who lived on a different floor in my dorm building, calling. I shook the sleep out of my eyes and picked up the phone, never expecting to hear frantic sobbing on the other end. I could barely understand what Marie was saying, but I understood that something horrible had happened, and her mother, who was in the military and was at the Pentagon, was unreachable. She finally told me to turn on the TV and I was shocked at the images before my eyes.

I wrote this quote down in my records that day – “We are going to wake up tomorrow a different country. Our luck has run out.” This was said by Jeff Greenfield, who was at the time on CNN. The quote really struck me back then as I thought about what was to come in this new United States that I would grow up in and have children in. Truly, the next day did feel even more surreal, with memorials and vigils all over campus. I remember thinking to myself that I had to watch and remember so one day I could explain to my children what this time was like for our country. There are just a few other times after that I remember feeling like that – the need to take it in and remember – watching TV with my husband when we bombed Iraq with “shock and awe”,  seeing coverage of the space shuttle Columbia disaster on television, the day we finally caught Bin Laden.

September 11, 2001 was the day the world was forever changed, and a time when I was most proud to be an American.

Being the always-technological person that I am, I saved many of my online conversations with friends from this day and recorded a number of thoughts in my computer journal. And of course, I was always checking the various news sources online. When I clicked on to CNN that day it made me feel just as scared of the future as I had felt when I turned on the TV that morning. Because CNN had never looked like this before. And it’s never looked like this again since.

I’ve saved these screen shots – from computer to computer to computer to computer (I’ve had around five computers since then, actually) because they are a part of technology and history that I hope to share with my children one day. The stark white space on the CNN page, with no other news stories to speak of, brought home the importance and terror of this unfathomable day.

Today my blog is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the horrible attack on the United States, and to the Police, Firefighters, other first-responders, and Military who also died performing heroic acts that day, and to those who selflessly dedicate their lives today to protecting our wonderful country. God Bless America.

*American Flag photo found at Wallpaper World (http://imageworldblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/american-flag-pictures-and-wiki.html)

I was sad to read this morning on Facebook that Disney is pulling the plug on the Grad Nite program in Orlando, which I attended in 2000, the year that I graduated high school.

For those of you who don’t know what Grad Nite is, Disney closes the park on select evenings every spring to allow high school students from all over the Southeast into the park on a special field trip that lasts all night long. The kids get to dance in the clubs on Paradise Island, eat, ride on all the rides, listen to concerts from select musical guests (the year I went, it was Destiny’s Child, Jessica Simpson, Youngstown & BB Mak!) and basically have a blast. It was at Grad Nite that I rode my first roller coaster ever (Space Mountain)! I definitely understand Disney’s reasoning for not wanting to close the park down any longer, as they’re losing out on ticket sales in a prime tourist season, but it’s a tradition that high school students all over Florida and the surrounding states will surely miss!

The week that we had Grad Nite, my friends Shelley and Jeremy and I were also in Orlando for the State Spanish Competitions. We arrived separately from our classmates with our teacher, since we had permission to leave the competitions to attend Grad Nite, and our teacher took this picture of us before everyone else arrived. I’m glad I have the image to commemorate the beginning of our Grad Nite experience!

I will always remember the wonderful time I had at Grad Nite!

I’ve seen quite a few launches over the past 10 years. My first shuttle launch was ten years ago on March 8, 2001 (seen with my friend Ben to celebrate his birthday). Ironically it was Discovery, the same shuttle that I saw yesterday with Adrian, Zachary, and my parents. The first launch you see is an amazing experience and something I will never forget. It was such an amazing thing to see the shuttle launch at dawn over Cocoa Beach, FL. If you’re interested you can see a YouTube video of that launch. I also have some old old scans saved, taken on my old film point & shoot camera. Both of these images were taken ten years ago!

Yesterday was Discovery’s final flight to Space. The shuttle program is being retired, and there are only one or two flights left, with Endeavor in April and possibly Atlantis in June (or some time this year), if the funding happens for NASA. Adrian and I were discussing the launch on Wednesday night while getting Zachary ready for bed, and decided that it was not worth it to miss this final flight. The space program always seems to be in limbo, and we knew that we’d regret not seeing the flight, plus it was something we wanted to do for Zachary.

So, I called my parents to see if they wanted to join us, and after running some errands in the morning we got ready and were on our way.

Zachary was a happy boy! I told him to smile and he gave me a funny grin. :)

Traffic wasn’t too bad until we got closer… but it got BAD. Now, driving to Titusville is normally a 3-hour drive or so, but it took us a ridiculously long time. We left at 12:30 and arrived at literally T-5 minutes at 4:45! I’m amazed we even arrived on time. It was absolutely insane how many people were waiting all over the streets. The beach was 20 people deep! it was just amazing to see! It reminded us of what the Apollo missions must have been like with all of the people gathering to watch.

There must have been tens of thousands of onlookers.

On our way we saw lots of signs like this dotting the churches and businesses along Cheney Highway (SR 50). I love seeing the community so involved.

Adrian dropped me and Zachary off at our watching spot at McDonalds on the water in Titusville… ran and parked the car really fast… and then ran and joined us just in time to put Zachary on his shoulders and see Discovery launch! I couldn’t believe we made it right under the wire, and we were all able to be together for this historic moment!

Seeing the shuttle launch was breathtaking!

My mom took this photo of the 3 of us:

See the difference between a point & shoot and an SLR (first image taken with the G11, second with the 5D):

We told Zachary that Buzz Lightyear was flying up on the Space Shuttle. He was very excited to see the shuttle blast off!

Traffic going home was even worse than coming up to Titusville. AT&T service was basically down for a while. While we were navigating traffic and trying to load the maps on our phone to find the best route, we spotted my parents in their car also trying to get through the traffic! As you can see from the iPhone Maps, it pretty much was not loading, and that whole road was completely red (awful traffic).

It ended up taking us 2 hours just to go 2 miles (so much fun with a 2 year old in the car, lol) and we decided to forget about I-95 which was totally backed up and drive further toward Orlando to grab the Turnpike after a series of road changes. After a quick stop for dinner a few miles from the Turnpike, Zachary ended up falling asleep, and so did I! :) We got home after 12AM. It was nice to sleep in a little this morning. I’m so thankful we got to see this once in a lifetime experience and that Zachary will be able to tell his friends one day that he saw Discovery’s last launch.

We hope to see all of the final launches in the space shuttle program. It is the end of an era.

I’m going to start this post with a conclusion. A resolution. Something that I have never done, and until recently, never saw as feasible. I want to publish a book, and when you read the rest of my story, you’ll understand why.

I’ve been sharing my life online for nearly 15 years now. In fact, my fifteenth year of online journaling/blogging is coming up in 2012…

As all of my readers know, photography is at the forefront of my creative passions, and it’s a passion I’ve had since I was very young. As a wedding & portrait photographer, I absolutely love taking pictures for my clients — as well as for my family and myself. As a teenager, I went through roll after roll of film every week.

Here’s an image of me captured by my associate photographer — I started laughing when I realized a guest was “dancing” with me while I was shooting at a recent wedding:

However, photography wasn’t always #1 in my life. When I first started blogging, I had just turned 15 years old, and while I always enjoyed taking pictures, writing and poetry was all I thought about! I had countless journals, which I still keep tucked away (see the photos below), and they are filled to the brim with the desires and disappointments of my youth, all in the form of poetry, prose, song lyrics, and stories.

I brought my notebooks to school and my friends used to ask to read my newest work just about every week. I really loved the way it made me feel, and it drove me to keep writing. I felt deep down that I had a gift for poetry. I also had some really intense pieces that, to this day, I’m not sure if I could even share with my own mother, and to think I wrote them in high school! Hah! At one point I even considered doing a minor in creative writing in college, but my life ended up taking a different path.

I continued to write when I entered college, but after I met my husband when I was 19, the writing muse faded away slowly until finally I just stopped writing all together. Maybe it’s because I was already beginning a serious journey into photography? Maybe it’s because my happiness with my husband meant I no longer needed to rely on my muse for support? I’m still not sure.

I reminisce about that period in my life quite frequently. I miss it, and actually keep a small notebook in my bag at all times, since sometimes my muse returns when I least expect her, and those snippets of thought are written down and stuffed away, until I have the time to consider them again.

Don’t get me wrong — I feel totally fulfilled with my photography job. It allows me to be creative every day of my life and do something that I feel is truly rewarding. I love what I do, and if this is my only path to take in life, then I can honestly say that there’s nothing else that would suit me better… But… Writing, especially poetry, has always been a thought in the back of my mind, and I’d love to get back into it in the same way that I experienced as a teenager.

Someday I’d love to take both of these dueling passions and incorporate them into something I can truly proud of – a book featuring my writing and photography.  I’ve never published a book before, not with poetry or photography, and to combine the thrill of writing a great poem with the same excitement that I experience taking a meaningful photograph would be such an incredible feeling!

In fact, just writing this post has stirred my soul and motivated me to pursue this goal!

I hope that one day, I’m able to fulfill this dream and create a beautiful book of words and images. I’m still looking for my writing muse… I haven’t given up. I think she may be right over my shoulder, or just around the corner. Sometimes I can see her out of the corner of my eye right before I fall asleep. She’s not completely gone, I suppose – just hiding. And as for me? Well, I’m on the hunt…

–

I’m writing this post as part of an entry in The Divine Miss Mommy’s contest to win a trip to the P&G “Have You Tried This Yet?” VIP Media Event in Miami Beach on February 17th.

As part of our contest entry, we’re asked to describe a P&G product that we’d love to try, and my choice without a doubt is Charmin Ultra Soft! I’m already a fan of Charmin, and the Ultra Soft would be a perfect choice for my little boy’s soft skin as he learns to potty train this year. And with less diapers to change and dispose of, maybe I’ll even have more time on my hands to spend working on my poetry once again! :)

Check out The Divine Miss Mommy’s site, too, and you can enter this contest yourself if you’d like!

Couldn’t resist the f-stop joke/pun! But yes, Photo Fun Month is over as of today! Wow… what a month it has been. I am so happy to have been able to offer so many fantastic giveaways to my readers. It’s been great meeting more of you and getting to know some of you better. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting this bit of an inside view into my life as well with my near-daily photos. I have one more shot to take today; not quite sure what I want to shoot.

I’m looking forward to getting back to a slower paced blog life again – blogging daily is super fun but I admit, incredibly time consuming. I also have a lot of love that needs to be shown to my photo blog as I’ve been working like crazy to get my last few weddings finished up before I go on vacation next month.

If you have enjoyed Photo Fun Month, I would sincerely appreciate if you could click the links to vote for me on Picket Fence or Top Baby Blogs! And don’t forget to check out the sidebar of the blog for giveaways!

I wanted to post my own interview answers to the questions that I’ve been asking other photographer moms this past month. I saved myself for last. :) Hope you enjoy the Q&A!

–

Name: Karen
Age: 28
Location: South Florida

Blog/Website/Twitter/FB Page:
http://www.karenlisa.com
http://www.karenlisa.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/karenlisaphoto
http://www.twitter.com/karenlisaphoto (business twitter account)

How long have you been a photographer, and how did you get started?
I’ve always enjoyed photography as a hobby. I used to take my little Olympus point & shoot everywhere in high school and in college I did a few shoots with friends just for fun. It wasn’t until I met my husband that being a photographer was even a consideration. Adrian always wanted to start a photo business, and after he got his first DSLR camera, I assisted him on a few shoots, and even took a few shots. He encouraged me when he saw that I had a good eye, and eventually he upgraded to a better camera and I received his DSLR. We started shooting portraits together in 2005, and weddings in 2006.

What’s your favorite type of session to photograph, and why?
I love shooting couples in all different fashions. Engagements are fun because they are just super excited about the wedding and bursting with energy. Weddings are a blast. But maternity is very special to me because I most often shoot first time moms & dads, and their maternity session is frequently the last “big thing” they do for themselves together before the baby comes. It’s the last time they have alone to enjoy each other, hug, kiss a lot, and cuddle. People always laugh because I ask them to be so touchy feely during the shoot, but I hope that those memories are ones that they look back on happily once the baby comes. My last vivid memories from right before my own baby was born were doing our maternity shoot and going to the beach with Adrian to try to induce labor by walking on sand! LOL!

What are three words that describe your photography? romantic, emotional, authentic

Are you a Canon or Nikon girl, and which lens is typically glued to your camera?
I shoot Canon (though sometimes I do have Nikon envy…shhh). I most often shoot with the 50mm 1.4. I know it like the palm of my hand!

How do you find balance being a mom and managing your own photography business?
It’s definitely tough, but preschool has been big for me. Now that Zachary is in school, I finally have time to do do things for myself as well as time to get work done effectively. It is all too easy to get burnt out and stressed out otherwise!

What’s your best advice for photographing your own kids?
I have found that the best way to photograph my son is in a “lifestyle” situation when I am capturing him at play or in action. I shoot fast and try to engage him in the activity and just try to be happy with what I get. It’s hard to shoot your own child because they’re used to your style and too interested in what mom/dad is doing. If your goal is to do a serious portrait shoot with your kid, having someone to help definitely produces better results since they can distract the child out of your frame of view. Otherwise, I aim to capture authentic shots of him in his environment, just being a kid. :)

How do you stay inspired?
Movies & beautifully produced TV shows inspire me a lot. I am not a really technical person as far as cinematography goes (my husband is the film school graduate) but there are many movie scenes that I would kill to recreate still images with my camera! I also enjoy checking out images from some of my favorite wedding & portrait photographers, but to be honest, I do this very infrequently as I hate to compare myself to others.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
This time of year anything with pumpkin is my absolute weakness!!! Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin dish towels, pumpkin trivets… you name it. If it’s made with pumpkin or has a pumpkin on it, I will probably buy it. I love pumpkins!

What’s the best thing about your job?
Flexibility and convenience to spend time with my family and play with my baby.

This is my current favorite image. I actually blogged it last week on my photography blog, as a preview for the wedding I photographed a few weeks ago. This bride and groom had an incredible sense of style, and we did their photo shoot before their ceremony at one of the swankiest hotels on South Beach! I love it!

Want to know more about me?

I’m a mom with a camera,
but my camera was with me long before I was a mom.

If I hadn’t found photography, I don’t know what I would be doing,
or how I could have been happy doing it.

I love music and shopping.

I’m thankful to have a few close friends who I talk to every day,
supportive parents, and a loving husband.

I’m not much of a cook, but I do love good food! :)

I live for getting packages in the mail!

I relish time I get to spend laying in bed reading a book,
snuggling with my sweet little dog.

I cherish time I get to spend cuddling with my baby boy,
even if we’re just relaxing on the couch & watching TV.

I love traveling.
I almost always get a souvenir for Zachary when we visit someplace new.

I have the best baby boy in the world.
I tell him how much I love him every chance I get.

I loved being pregnant, and look forward to giving my son
a sister or brother someday.

I have a tendency to get obsessed with certain books/movies/TV series.
True Blood, Harry Potter, Twilight…. most definitely a fangirl.

Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

Also, Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Once September 1st rolls around,
Starbucks gets entirely too much of my money.

I love a clean house, but I hate the actual work involved with cleaning.
But who doesn’t? okay… maybe my mom. :)

I’m dismayed to report that my iPhone is NOT surgically attached to me.

I love Macs… both the makeup AND the computer. :)

I can’t imagine not blogging in some way, shape, or form.
I’ve been blogging since 1996 – it’s a part of my life.

now… tell me something about yourself!

]]> http://siren.org/2010/09/pieces-of-me/feed/ 1 http://siren.org/2010/09/blast-from-the-past-my-favorite-retro-toys-from-the-1980s/ http://siren.org/2010/09/blast-from-the-past-my-favorite-retro-toys-from-the-1980s/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:30:20 +0000 karen lisa http://siren.org/?p=1644

When I think back on my childhood, one of the things that pop into my head are some of the AMAZING toys that I used to play with. My parents were great at picking out cool toys and I think they probably had just as much fun buying me toys as I had playing with them. I seem to have inherited that trait, as I have a hard time resisting the toy aisle when I take Zachary shopping. I had to hold myself back from a $50 talking Buzz Lightyear the other day, and I can tell you it was not easy!

I wanted to feature a few of my favorite childhood toys. I had some popular favorites, of course, but also a few unique toys as well.

One of my first favorite toys that I can remember are Playplax. They were a British toy that my mom told me she purchased years before I was even born! She saw them in a store while on a trip and thought they were so interesting that she had to have them for her someday child, so she bought them and saved them for me for many years. Playplax are polystyrene shapes that interconnect so that the child can create unlimited structures, towers, pretty much anything left up to the imagination. I loved playing with my Playplax and designing all kinds of structures. One thing I specifically remember is how each square piece felt in my hand. It was such a unique toy and I had nothing else that was like it. The pieces were smooth and locked together so I could build anything I wanted. If I close my eyes I can remember what it felt like to hold the pieces and create something. Thankfully my mom was able to find the box, so Zachary will be able to play with this beloved toy of mine one day, too.

Image from DesignAddict

Another toy that I loved growing up was the Spirograph. I had many hours of fun drawing different spiral designs. This thing really kept me occupied, and I remember playing with it very frequently! It appears that they have new versions on Amazon now (by Hasbro & other random brands), but  it’s not the same as the classic version by Kenner from 1986 (it’s amazing how you can still remember what the box from your favorite toy looked like after 20 years).  Also, the reviews of the new “Spirographs” on Amazon are pretty horrible. It’s sad that in bringing back a classic toy they have tried to “reinvent” it and of course, ruined it, which tends to happen frequently. You can still find the classic version as a collectible for about $30-$40 on the internet, though, and if I’m unable to find my original Spirograph at my parents’ house, I’d seriously consider purchasing one on online for Zachary. I really loved creating with this toy – it was so interesting and artistic. Similarly to the Playplax, I can close my eyes and remember what it felt like to draw with the Spirograph and feel the gears connecting around the pieces as I drew.

Image from Peabody Penguin’s Spirograph Collections

Finally, my last favorite was my Fisher Price Record Player. I absolutely loved this toy and remember playing with it until I was 8 or 9 years old! Not just a baby toy! I have always loved music and I used to love sitting on my bed playing with my dolls and listening to my record player. They have rereleased this (it can be found at Target & other stores along with the other classic Fisher Price rereleased toys) but it’s not the same, so I’ve heard. The classic version did not require batteries to play the records, but the new version uses a computer chip, so it requires batteries. This is unfortunate since it was not needed. You know, I love technology, but we are so quick to “over-tech” things these days. They could have just let it be. Either way, I will be getting the new version for Zachary, as I do not know where my classic toy is and want him to enjoy it as much as I did.

Image from BabyAge

Did you have any of these toys growing up? What are some of your favorite childhood toys? Do you still have them? If you don’t, do you plan on re-buying any of them so that your child can experience the same magic that you felt when you played with them when you were little?

—
If you like my blog, please consider voting! <3

Throughout high school, I wrote TONS of poetry! Most of it has never seen the light of day, but I used to share some of it on the internet back when siren.org was part of the teen domain name craze rather than a mommy blog. :) Some of my old-school readers will remember those good ol’ days! I actually think I’m a pretty good writer, but I haven’t put pen to paper (or, fingers to keyboard, I guess) in quite some time to write a poem or story… but it’s something I’d really love to do again. You know… one day, when I have time for it.

When Nicci at Changing the Universe mentioned doing a Teenage Poetry Blog Hop on her twitter the other day, I knew I had to get in on it and post one of my favorites from my high school days! I wrote this gem on January 8, 1999, which means I was 16 years old and in the 11th grade.

Dreamweaver

I run through a valley, dark horses, dark manes,
The wind on my back, dark blood in my veins.

Engulfing the sorrow is my task, you see,
I’m the dreamweaver, you belong to me.

Nothing too small, too bright, full of shine,
Spares my darkness your treasure; your dreams are mine.

Stolen from under your pillow, I creep,
Into the cavern you call dreamland: sleep.

Dark love in your wishes, dark thoughts in your mind,
Your dreams are of heaven where you reign divine.

You answer to no one, yet come when I call,
Your dreams have vanished; I’ve stolen them all.

Demons that beckon to you when you slumber,
Have replaced the nightingales, the doves, now dark umber.

The soil is mineral, the sky is dark grey,
Blood seeps through the valley, and down falls the day.

I pierce right through you, down to your death,
No dreams to be dreamt of, no love to have left.

Sorry guys, no Mixtape Mondays today on occasion of my little dude being sick and working ALL weekend. I just don’t have the heart to put one together right now.

In the mean time, check out the True Blood Season 1 Soundtrack, hopefully in honor of the TB ep I’m going to watch tonight, assuming Zachary falls asleep. *sigh* Now on to today’s blog post….

–

So, as I mentioned, my little guy is sick. Zachary has his first case of the flu! Have you ever dealt with the flu in a not quite 2 year old? Well, let me tell you something, you don’t want to. It pretty much sucks. There is absolutely nothing worse than seeing your little baby feeling so awful!

Getting him to fall asleep was so hard. I had to lay down with him in his bed because he didn’t want to be by himself – of course, there isn’t much room in a toddler bed, so I sat next to the bed at times and rested my head next to him. When that didn’t work, we laid on a blanket on the floor. When that didn’t work, I sat in his chair and held him as he cuddled with me.

I pretty much did whatever Zachary wanted to do throughout the evening to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible, and I think I succeeded because when morning came, I could tell that he felt better, while I felt pretty terrible – LOL.

In my seriously sleep-deprived haze last night, as I went in and out of sleep sitting next to my poor sick baby, I started to have a flashback to my own childhood, thinking about all the times that I got sick as a little girl, and remembering my mother doing exactly what I was doing for my baby – sitting next to me, giving me Tylenol, making sure I was drinking fluids, and rubbing my back.

Though Adrian and were both horribly exhausted, the thought brought a smile to my face, because we were willing to do anything at that point to make Zachary feel better because we love him so much, and I’m sure our parents probably had many a night like that when we were children. It’s nice, in a way (though at that moment it was awful), to live through experiences like that, just to see how our parents have felt for us at any given time in our lives.

–

If you like my blog, would you mind clicking here to vote? it just takes two clicks to give me a vote! Thanks! And don’t forget about the Laurie Berkner CD giveaway ending tomorrow night!

Ten years ago, I started college at the University of Central Florida, majoring in Radio/TV and minoring in Anthropology. I was really interested in Anthropology – maybe even as a major, so before I started school, my parents drove up with me to visit the university and I scheduled a meeting with a professor whose work really called out to me. Her name was Dr. Elayne Zorn. She was kind enough to meet with me as an incoming freshman and answer questions about the school and the anthropology program.

I ended up completing a minor in the anthropology program when I graduated after I transferred to UF a few years later, and consider what I learned in my anthro classes (a few of them with Dr. Zorn) to be worth just as much as my communications and journalism classes were, in my career now as a wedding photographer (isn’t the photography of modern weddings the ultimate in the study of a crazy human cultural experience?!).

In my Communications program, I met a few guys, Sean Rugg and Nick LoCicero, and Sean’s good friend, Ben Del Vento. We all became friends and discovered that we had an interest in creating a student-run radio station. UCF had a radio station, but it was not student run; instead it was the home of the local NPR channel. There was only one student-produced show which ran over the audio signal of UCF’s carrier TV channel, and I volunteered there with Nick and Sean during my freshman year. I’m not sure what the listenership was, but we wanted something that was much more accessible and widespread, since the student show was only available on-campus.

With no chance of taking back the WUCF NPR radio station, we took matters into our own hands, and created WKNT Knightcast, a shoutcast internet radio station. If we were going to get anywhere, it was clear that we’d need faculty support. We were unable to obtain support from the Radio/TV department – their job was to promote the one student-run show on the UCF TV channel – so we needed to look elsewhere.

Immediately I thought of Dr. Zorn. I had become close with her since starting my first semester and I felt that I could ask her to help us out. She was a little unsure, at first — after all, the whole idea of internet radio was very new back then and I’m not sure exactly if she understood how it worked – but she took a leap of faith and agreed to be our first ever faculty advisor!

Dr. Zorn was a good person who helped us out when we really needed it, and her support helped Knightcast grow significantly from getting SGA to recognize us to obtaining our first studio space. Those were exciting times….

Knightcast will be 10 years old this fall. Sometimes I look back and it feels like yesterday when we had our first meeting with Dr. Zorn to talk about bringing our dream of Knightcast to life.

I’m thankful I was able to be her student, too. Dr. Zorn was a great teacher, and we shared many, many conversations throughout my freshman and sophomore years of college. She was an inspirational person, a great mentor, and a friend to me.  I’ve always thought about her over the years, even though we hadn’t talked in a long time. She had a lot of influence on my choosing to continue to study anthropology, and that has made me the person I am today. Thanks, Dr. Zorn – you will aways be remembered!