The nicest part of ASECS 2004 was being able to catch up with friends from grad school. The University of Maryland English Department had a powerhouse group of eighteenth-century graduate students there for awhile, and I was as influenced by the remarkable group of peers I found in grad school as I was by my professors. A surprising number of us ended up in tenure-track jobs. Liza Child teaches at Trinity College in D. C. Leigh Eicke is at Grand Valley State University. Mark Pedreira teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. Eleanor Shevlin is with West Chester University. (There are several others who were at UMD with us, but they were not at the conference.) Sharing our experiences and exchanging advice helped me to put my own life into perspective. I feel fortunate.