In collaboration with Rebecca Strzelec.

One of us (Rebecca Strzelec and Phil Renato) appeared a lot in their yearbook, writing and quotes and skateboards and politics and Most Unique. Let’s lift some of these off references and stamp them on the present, wear them around our necks and spin a wheel of fortune to chance upon the next mark. You’ll find them stacked on top of history, French, and algebra books, just high enough to catch the cords on hooks for backpacks and coats. They will be used where they ought not. The other appeared less frequently in their yearbook, a baby in pigtails, headshots in homogeneous tops supplied by the photographer, described in the beautiful handwriting of their peers. The Colors of The Rock were grayscale, including what must have been a flowing polychrome flannel, wrapped around a shy student, hair pulled back, surrounded by artwork, wrapping a sculpture of coiled snake. “They say the stars exist so we may know how high our dreams may soar,” “there is so much I have to write, but not enough space,” “maybe we’ll go skating soon,” “Keep in Touch, Bec.” We see us as you should see us—as former enemies from rival graduate programs who swapped high school yearbooks. Each one of us is a competitor and a creative, and a nostalgic, a professor, and an idealist.