Wikipedia

Yes, you can even edit the Wikipedia page about Wikipedia.

In the second grade, my school's library bought a brand new edition of the Children's Britannica encyclopedia. Needing space in the already crowded library, the librarian turned to the teachers and asked if they knew of any students that could use a slightly outdated set. I was the lucky student and I remember poring over the pages, mesmerized by the complexity of the world (and the pretty pictures; yay, children's editions). In the dozens of reports I would write in the following years, I referenced the encyclopedia often. But as I grew older and picked newer or more complex topics, I began turning to the just burgeoning internet for sources.

Last month, Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary. This didn't strike me as all that special in the grand scheme of things until I thought about how extensively Wikipedia has impacted my life (and I mean that with all due hyperbole).

Character Study: Janitorial Nascar

Leaning against his unloved mop, the custodian gazes out over his domain, his mouth hanging awkwardly agar. His camouflage-patterned truck cap covers a head that seems unusually suited to his greasy mullet. Every 3-4 minutes he makes a pass with his mop at the salty residue dragged in from the snowy walkway outside. He disappears now and then but reappears a few minutes later to again mop one step on a stairway or a couple tiles on the floor, with no obvious longterm strategy. It is only when he mounts his trusty ride-on floor cleaner that we glimpse what revs his engine, so to speak. You can see in his eyes, as he makes each left turn, that he's playing out his dream of driving in NASCAR. The competitive spirit catches him and he completes as many laps around the building's foyer as he can reasonably justify. His mullet wafts in the slight breeze at the top speed of a few miles per hour.