January 12, 2007

Goodbye MATH+1

After more than five years, MATH+1 is closing its virtual doors. It's pretty bittersweet but like many things in life, when it's just time, it was just time.

When we started the forum, back on Greenspun in 2001, AB was the only one of us who had a spouse. Now I'm the only single one left. T and Mike have both not only gotten married, but have also become parents to gorgeous baby boys, who aren't even babies anymore! That forum saw Al and the MOC move from Texas to Atlanta; me from Ohio to Atlanta; and AB and her family relocate from Dallas back to their Louisiana hometown. And those are just the life changes experienced by the five of us; it says nothing of the dozens of MATHletes who got married (so many weddings!), had babies (oh so many babies!), changed jobs, graduated college, went back to college (and grad school and law school), moved cross country or across the hemisphere.

So many friendships have evolved out of that forum; people who went from strangers to virtual friends to BFFs who fly across the country to visit one another. Of all the wonderful things we've experienced, that fact stands out as one of the things that pleases me most: that I may have had a small hand in setting up a way for people to connect, to fall in love, to establish relationships.

So thank you for all the good advice, all the hilarious stories, all the catch phrases, all the deciphering of Lost, all the support, all the love, all the friendships. MATH+1 shaped not only my Internet experience but also my life and I can't imagine what it is going to be like without it. Who will trade endless Office quotes with me? ("I once outran a black pepper snake.")

I'll see y'all somewhere along the Highway. Till then.

Posted by hannah at 01:37 PM