Author and philosopher Marietta McCarty writes this guest post on sharing conversation and forging relationships during school years for Penguin USA.  

Regardless of age, you can feel it. As August days creep by, it’s time to get ready for school. A fresh start beckons.

Looking back at my college years and many more years as a college professor, memories almost always circle around food. A dinner bell brings people together as nothing else can. Happy college evenings spent lingering over coffee in the dining hall and more friends pulling up chairs and delaying their departures…students breaking bread over good conversation in faculty homes and forever changing the classroom dynamic…parents coming to visit and picnicking with a group that expands with every wave of a hand …

As a college professor, hearing the expected request after just a few weeks from students wanting to fix food for the class, thereby making a large group more intimate…study sessions congregating over potluck dinners and nervous pre-exam breakfasts…dinner parties celebrating semester’s end and contact information exchanging…

Today I glanced at some of my upcoming book events and once again plates are passing—in Maryland to meet with educators and parents, we picnic—at the University of Virginia, students and I have dinner before the evening’s discussion—local eateries in Charlottesville supply their specialties, and a philosophizing afternoon takes a festive turn. Read more.