I’m posting things a bit out of order here, as I begin to assemble the stories from the various places I’ve written them down – LJ, email, notebooks, 3 different computers, scraps of paper.
So, I’ll provide a bit of a timeline here, to give the stories a bit more context and framework.
Early beard timeline:
February 26, 2008 – got accepted into grad school.
March 10, 2008 – got offered a summer job as a grad student researcher
March 2008 – made a plan to quit my job ASAP, which would leave me 6 weeks to travel and play around before starting work/school. Decided to also use those 6 weeks to grow my beard, to satisfy my curiosity about what my beard looks like if I don’t hide it. Planned to shave it before starting work for the summer.
April 2, 2008 – gave my one-month notice at work. I considered giving notice on April Fool’s Day but decided against it. I was happy enough to be quitting and didn’t need another excuse to start chuckling as I told them I’d be leaving.
April, 2008 – planned a bunch of travel, including trips to see family. Didn’t really think through that I was planning this travel for the time that I’d have my beard.
April 24, 2008 – quit my job, started growing my beard.
May 2008 – traveled to see my parents. Also saw several friends from high school and two sets of aunts/uncles/cousins who I hadn’t seen in a few years.
May 24 – June 4, 2008 – traveled to Israel
June 5-8, 2008 – decided not to shave my beard when I started work for the summer. I’d had good experiences overall, so it seemed ok to keep it. And, I had underestimated how long it would take to grow, and I was curious what it would look like as it filled in more. I figured I’d shave it in the fall, before I started a teaching fellowship that would have me teaching in a middle school once a week.
June 9, 2008 – started work at a graduate researcher.
June 13, 2008 – here are a few pictures of me with 7 weeks of beard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27636725@N02/?saved=1
beardstories 