So, it was not planned but my Gmail account has 'pack ratted' every email that I have ever sent/read. Like, ever.

I now use HEY! for my personal email: t.a.capone@hey.com and I love it. But I still also use Gmail. And here is what happened: today is 11/25/2025. Now I can go into my Gmail archive for 11/25 from YEARS AGO... and see what I was thinking at the time. All the way back to 2005.

What was 'hot' on this date years ago? What was a problem, what was I working on in 2005? Or in 2009 or in 2011? What is fun is that sometimes I'll see an email thread from someone from YEARS ago....... and I'm still working with them! Or sadly, it is an email thread from a relationship from the past that is now gone forever.

I just saw an email thread from when I was just 'thinking' about taking over running the New York (METRO) Distance Learning Association. We were in a recession (2008? 2009?) and the NYDLA.org was broke. It is funny to read those emails to see what I was thinking about at that time - and how I almost passed on the opportunity to take over the bankrupt NYDLA.org. Ah, but I saw the value of THE BRAND.

2025: the NADLA.org now services 174K+ K-20 schools across North America. And the GlobalDLA.org just went live. What if I never took the leap with the NYDLA? What if I just stayed running MyTeachingPartners.com ? 

Gmail went 'live' in 2004. It had one gigabyte (GB) of storage space, a significantly higher amount than competitors offered at the time. Today I have several terabytes of paid storage (1 TB = 1 trillion bytes) in my Gmail archive. I think it costs me a few dollars per month. Peanuts. 

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