28 February 2021:
27 February 2021: I am not exaggerating when I say that all of my classes, particularly my Emily Dickinson seminar, helped me get through these extraordinary days. Today, I got to hear three of my Dickinson students present their amazing work at the WV Undergraduate Literature Symposium. I just sat back, watched them shine, and remembered how very lucky I am. (My students are the three young women in middle of the second row.)
26 February 2021: "One can begin so many things with a new person!—even begin to be a better man." --George Eliot, Middlemarch
Such a pleasure to return to this book again and (re)discover gems like this one, where the narrator hints at Lydgate's appeal for Bulstrode. The book is packed with these very specific insights about its characters that nevertheless still ring true today.
18 February 2021: My mom got her first shot yesterday and my dad got his today. Deeply relieved and grateful that they've started this process. Feels like a quiet but long-delayed miracle.
17 February 2021: Day Four of Jane Eyre discussion and the students are unanimous in their view of Rochester. I was playing some mean devil's advocate, but the #youth weren't having it. (This does make me feel reassured re: their romantic choices.) Seventy pages or so to go and I don't imagine their opinions will change much.
14 February 2021: Just got done offering some feedback to a recent graduate who is working on a statement of purpose for a graduate program. Every time I get asked to do one of these, I say, "You know I haven't done one of these since 1998..." And because of how time works, every year 1998 is further away.
Yet I always end up recycling some of the advice my advisor gave me back in 1998: give us your voice, find the little stories you can tell in a phrase or an example, make us see you. It's not easy to do--to blend the academic and the personal, argue a thesis that is about you. But when you can do it, it works really well.
Anyway, no doubt because I am currently reading Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch, my thoughts went back to my "hook" for my own statement--the story of finding myself going down an internet rabbit hole to learn everything I could about Christina Rossetti. It's kind of funny now. In 1998, after all, the internet was still a bit "new" for many of us. Clear as day, I can see my advisor telling me he liked it a lot, but I wanted to be careful not to come off as some "cyber-punk." He had even written "cyber-punk?" in the margin. You know, I didn't want to scare off professors by seeming too obsessed with this internet thing. Ha. Very 1998.
11 February 2021: Sometimes a silly title is enough for the day's post, especially on a snowy, meeting-filled, work-from-home day.
10 February 2021: Today is Tara's birthday, and I gave her a call during my lunch break. It was really nice to talk to her mid-day. While we talked, I kept thinking about how much her conversation centers others and how little she focuses on herself. That says a lot about her, I think, and her kind heart. I do wish she would center herself every once in a while, of course! One of my self-appointed jobs is to remind her of that.
3 February 2021: “It was the same thing with joy and happiness: you have to get in the habit. You have to practice it.” –Robin Roberts, explaining some of how her experiences as an athlete connected to other parts of her life, on this episode of Don’t Ask Tig
Don’t Ask Tig is a fun podcast, kind of silly and light. But I was really charmed by Roberts on this episode as I listened to it this morning. I know it’s not as easy as she makes it sound (and I know she isn’t saying it’s easy), but in these dark days, I appreciated the reminder that we can consciously elevate our lives.
Another choice quotation: Roberts notes that her father told her, “When somebody asks you what do you want to be, you tell them you want to be kind.”
