There are times when Mommy seems to be places for momentous occasions without intending to: the one year she was in Poland was the year Pope John Paul II died, the one day she was in Atlanta was the day they celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Olympic Games, and now, the one year she is at Rice University is the year the university celebrates its centennial. Mommy got to attend the chemical engineering department’s 100 year dinner. She met chemical engineers who grew with the petroleum industry and faculty members who were there when chemical engineering really became different from chemistry and other kinds of engineering. This made her think about what her department with be like in 40 years and how they might describe now–just another reminder that we need to act on our ideas for change when we have the opportunities.