Anne Schmidt
Katy, TX 77450
anne.schmidt@me.com
facebook.com/groups/UMaineClass2004/
Hello, Class of ’04! As I sit in my office at home, which truly is a full-time work from home space now, I am remembering what I was doing this very week one year ago. It was a whole lot of nothing. At this point last year (I’m writing this at the end of March), we were two weeks into a statewide shutdown in Texas. My kids never went back to school after spring break, and all we did was glue ourselves to our TV screens in between online Zoom school and remembering to feed ourselves. I have a horrible habit of skipping lunch. One year. A year of incredible loss and turmoil, but I also hope incredible joy, and hopefully some much-needed perspective changes in so many facets of our lives. I know it certainly has been that way for me and my family.
I am thankful that spring in east Texas is beautiful, because after the winter we had, we certainly need some rebirth. The freeze that took out my entire state and shut down our power grid for days, freezing pipes and upending peoples’ lives was a shock to our system. Imagine the ice storm of ’98 without the blizzard. Living through that I felt super-prepared to handle this, but y’all! These Texas houses are NOT built for freezing temps. If my pipes are going to freeze, there better be at least two feet of snow on the ground. We went nine days without water, and if I had to do the math, I’m pretty sure this is the fifth natural disaster that we’ve witnessed in some way in the seven years that we’ve lived here. What a wild ride so far. We are excited for our return to Maine this summer to see our family, and I have a few weddings to photograph there as well.
In job news I have accepted a new position on the partner operations team at HubSpot in Cambridge, MA. The position is remote so I will continue to work from home. I’m looking forward to this transition back into the corporate world, while still taking on a handful of weddings a year here in Houston and in Maine. We were pretty light on class news this go-around, but here is what we’ve got! Jon Mason was recently named to the board of directors for Jobs for Maine’s Graduates. Jon is the vice president of human resources at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works. Hannah Colson ’05G is the new chief financial officer at Hammond Lumber in Maine. She joined Hammond through the acquisition of Ellsworth Building Supply, where she served as CFO. Congrats to our graduates on these new adventures!
I would love to write more news about the goings-on of our class, so please feel free to email me and send along your news and accomplishments. I hope you all are well and are enjoying life wherever you are.