[Guest Post] A Whiff of Nostalgia Amidst the Scent of Youth by Ceri Riley '16

For the integrity of alumposting, I’m pasting Daniel’s bio from 2009 (when he last blogged for MIT Admissions) as a brief intro:

Daniel is the Director of Student Financial Aid and Student Employment at MIT. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial aid and student financing industry, including stints on “all three sides of the fence” — working for loan originators, loan servicers, and financial aid offices.

A proud father of two daughters, Daniel also has a budding career as:

– poet

– philosopher

– tarot card enthusiast

– musical theater performer

– religious school instructor.

There is never a quiet moment in his life, and he likes it that way!

If I ever write my autobiography, I’m going to start it with this line: “I was born in a place that doesn’t exist anymore.” No, that doesn’t mean my homeland fell into the ocean, or was destroyed by the consequence of a natural disaster, but rather that the place of my birth has become an accident of human history. See, I was born in the Panama Canal Zone, at the time an American enclave filled with transplants from overseas living in and managing the transatlantic shipping crossing. My parents lived in the Canal Zone for 28 years and I was born about halfway during their stay which meant that when my dad retired, we moved to South Carolina (where they were from originally) and I left my community of friends behind.

I plan on going back to Panama this year. We are planning a trip to see the physical sites I grew up visiting daily – my elementary and middle school, the places we went for vacation (El Valle de Anton, Chiriqui Province), and the home where I used to live – but the people I knew are gone. The friends I made in school, the bowling league, the cub scouts, the swim team, the community theater people – they have all dispersed. While I can see the remnants of a life once lived, and I hold treasured memories, I can’t revisit or reconnect with the people themselves.

So why revisit? Why go back 40 years later? Why take the time to memorialize what came before? The answer, I think, is that it was an important part of my life, a time of growth and identity formation, and even though I can only see the skeletal remains, there is an honoring of what’s come before and the way in which they have shaped the person I have become.

In 2004, during my tenure as Director of Financial Aid at MIT, I learned about a project which was being undertaken by my colleagues in Admissions. Ben Jones and Matt McGann were introducing a revolutionary change to the Admissions website, and were going to feature staff and student bloggers. The idea was that there would be fresh content regularly rather than the static sites many schools used. I approached them and asked if I could be a part of this effort as a financial aid guy; I wanted to share information about how our process worked, sure, but also as importantly, I wanted to give applicants and the public an opportunity to get a view of the people who worked at MIT, to give you a chance to get to know us. From the beginning of the project until my time came to move on from MIT in 2009, I was part of the blogging crew.

You can’t find my older posts online now. Much of the content was relevant to the timeframe it was published and it really doesn’t make sense to have it public now (although if you are stealthy, you can search for it at the Wayback Machine or read my blogging mission statement at MIT Admissions | Blog Entry: “Feeling lost”). So, sure, much of what I wrote is not visible anymore; it doesn’t exist (see what I did there?). But the legacy lives on. The work that Ben, Matt, Anthony (’09), Bryan (’07), Jessie (’07), Jess (’10), Paul (’11), Mitra (’07), Sam (’07) and so many others contributed (and our current bloggers continue to contribute) represents the ongoing commitment to transparency and relevance that set the site apart from the very beginning. What an honor to have been a part of the initial crew, and what a great opportunity to revisit on our 20^th anniversary.

So, what’s the legacy? How has the experience shaped me? I can say that for me personally the opportunity to reflect and share personal experiences in this format made me a better financial aid professional, and gave me a unique opportunity to interact with students and parents in a way I haven’t seen anywhere else. I miss it… And while I have tried to keep other blogs (looking at you Moneyman’s College Financial Aid Blog and Talking to Myself | Poetry from Now and Then) the impetus to stay updated with them just hasn’t been the same. I miss the community and the camaraderie of the MIT Blogs, and I do admire and envy the folks who still have the chance to share a glimpse of their lives and their process with you.

Maybe the popular adage really is true – “You can never go home again”. But here’s hoping you can at least visit on momentous occasions.