Memory Lane

Doing some housecleaning today I came across some old resume files. Remember the mid-90s, ah yes, the wild west days of those interwebs. The 2.0 version of the old Lady'Back site was quite the rage in 1996. In fact, Arkansas, Stanford and Tennessee tied in a national survey of the most complete women's basketball websites in those pioneer days.

Once upon a time, I had an older colleague that said you need to keep a folder of the good things you've done. It will help you to remember things for resumes and such, but more important he said, it will be there for you when things aren't as rosy to remind you of the good times.

Twenty years later when I went to advanced public information officer training at the National Fire Academy/FEMA, I remember one of the PIOs that had gone through some rough times say the exact same thing. She kept a three-ring binder of the letters of accommodation she received. Some of us thought that was a bit ego-centric, but she continued to say that on those days something really bad happened -- not necessarily to her, because the PIO business can be life and death for served agencies and the public -- she could pull that out and spend a little time recharging and remembering happier days.

These digital days, a little harder to have a folder. Maybe get yourself a thumb drive.

Some advice remains timeless.