Team U.

As I prepare for my trip to the land of the delta blues Thursday morning, I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am to reunite with Team Unstoppable. (Before LB strangles me for posting this pic, let me sing their praises...).

We all met during our Rhodes career at different points along the journey. Katie and Jackie were friends from the start as they lived in the same quad as were Katie and I being both from New Orleans but for the rest of the gang, our friendships formed over time. Jackie and I hung out around each other but didn't really become great friends until senior year. LB and I didn't start hanging out until the spring semester of my junior year, fully solidifying our friendship that summer. For Will and I, he wasn't able to get over our rival fraternity issues until our senior year when we bonded over our Orientation experience. So, in essence, senior year really marked our coming together as Team U.

I can't say when we dubbed ourselves "Team Unstoppable" or how that nickname came to be (perhaps someone can refresh me) but I can say Katie, Jackie, LB, and Will were instrumental in my success post college. Four of us remained in Memphis post graduation with Katie joining us soon after (thanks to a little storm called Katrina.) We worked in education, business, property management, and non-profit. Will and I lived on Mignon and the girls on Rosemary Lane. But for that first year post college, you couldn't find one of us without another. It's how we coped with being "in the real world" and being "on our own" for the first time. I always dreamed of being a young professional working in the same city with my best friends and for those years post college, my dream came true.

Eventually, we all started to part ways and leave Memphis. LB moved to Austin for family reasons, Katie to New Orleans for school, Will to Atlanta for a new job and family, me to Athens for grad school, and Jackie, well she stayed in Memphis.

This weekend, we will all reunite in Memphis for Jackie's wedding. It will most likely be the only time we'll all be together before LB's wedding next May. We'll be joined by Mason and Amanda, two of our good friends who began with us at Rhodes but transferred along the way.

There's something about spending a weekend with good friends reminiscing about college, reliving all the inside jokes, and feeling at home.

So to Team-U and to a little reminder of our college days, here's to you guys! I can't wait for Memphis! Cheers.