The past two pandemic-defined years have represented life, relational, and professional challenges for the whole of humanity. With everyone’s lives greatly shifted from their norms, the collective mental and emotional health of our society has been plagued by fears of isolation, of suffering and illness, and of the unknown that the future represents for all of us. Despite this recent uncertainty, many of our amazing classmates continue to take new directions in so many aspects of their lives and careers—and a select group among us are specifically helping others to set the course for their new directions. One such guide helping her fellow humans to identify and pursue their intended paths is our own Jennie Tranter. As a psychotherapist and transformational coach, Jennie launched a private practice in September working with adults, adolescents, young people, and their families with a concentration on “liminality”—the psychological process of transitioning across boundaries and borders—a concept she discovered during her tenure at Dartmouth. Liminality encompasses the unknown and the discomfort of not knowing the right steps forward while also not being able to go backward. Her professional goal is to help people on their “journeys of transition and transformation” as they pass through their own liminal spaces. She has recently begun providing coaching and psychotherapy options via her main website at jennietranter.com.

And speaking of celebrating and promoting the paths of others, our own class president Leslie (Jennings) Rowley has recently ventured to document the paths many of our classmates have followed since their years as undergraduates. Her now award-winning Roads Taken podcast traces where our fellow ’96s were upon graduation, who they thought they would be, and the eventual roads taken across the 25 years that led them to where they are today. (See a profile of her and the podcast in the last DAM.) Each weekly episode of the podcast follows a different classmate’s journey between their liminal spaces (à la Jennie Tranter’s conceptual work discussed earlier in these notes).

The themes of each episode are as diverse and exciting as the members of our class themselves. Recent installments have included: “Gratitude, Attitude & Courage: Kate Andrew Kelly on finding joy by developing it in others”; “Pursuing Integrity: Tim Chow on being true to yourself”; and “Lucky & Charmed: K.C. Danzansky on staying the course and finding the new.” Season 2 of the podcast series also includes episodes focused on Kate Shanahan, Ryan Donovan, Carrie Kuss, Wendi Potter McKenna, Bill Tovell, Sarah Hodges, Carrington Bradley, Adam Medros, Sansea Jacobson, Kevin McGowan, Michael Zigmont, Rose Lee, Drew Natenshon, Sara Paisner,and Jeff Botelho—and those are just the episodes from the past four months prior to the submission of this column! The episodes are a great way to catch up with and find out more about the dynamic roads our lives have taken during these past two and half decades, and it is becoming a resource for younger alums and undergraduates to explore avenues they might undertake as they set their lives in new directions.

Take a few minutes and sit down with a classmate today via roadstakenshow.com—you won’t regret it and might even learn something new about yourself as you listen to the stories of others! If nothing else, catch up on everyone’s lives in advance of our forthcoming reunion—now just seven months away!

—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org