And another class is selected...

The Clarion West class of 2001 has an e-mail discussion listserv, and one of my classmates (Ling) let us know today that the new class has started setting up its own web site. She found this out by looking at who was linking to *her* webpages, and discovered that one of her pages was linked to by the new CW2002 page. (Note that I'm not all *that* bitter that they haven't linked to *my* page. :-)

You can see the new CW2002 page here: http://members.aol.com/dderovich/clarion/index.htm

I see there's another Seattlite who used to live in Philly joining this years class. Who also left his prior job in August. Who is also in his mid-thirties. Wacky. Then again, he seems to have liked Philadelphia, whereas I found living in Philly about as appealing as Rosanne Barr. [shudder]

So far, this year's group looks every bit as diverse and interesting as our group was. There's still a few more classmates to be determined, I think. (I'm not part of the admissions process, but the CW2002 site itself only lists ten or so people in the class.)

I have to admit, I'm feeling the same sort of mixed pangs that I felt the September following graduation from Cornell (and the sort of pangs I did *not* feel after leaving grad school at UPenn): some nostalgia, some sense that "I should be there, too", relief that I'm *not* going to be there, and a sense of moving forward. That as a new class comes in, I now take the next step from being a member of the current class to being an alum, with the new responsibilities that that entails.

Along those lines, by the way, I'll mention that I've currently got two short stories out there under consideration, and I hope to get the novel out by the end of April. More on that soon....

I look forward to meeting them, and I wish the CW class of 2002 all the best!