My ivy-league-attending, determined, athletic, gorgeous, highly accomplished niece has included something I wrote on her Facebook Favorite Quotes page:
HOWEVER.
Above quote is not such an example; in fact, it remains to this day one of my favorite things to ever tumble out of my brain. It is not an exploded fish. And that it resonates with my niece makes me feel very proud - of myself, and of her - and humble at the same time. Not everyone "gets" that quote, and that she does is very rewarding.
* My experience in academe taught me (among other things) that often utterly incomprehensible, ridiculous, and pretentious academic writing is highly rewarded, whether materially by corporate academic sponsors, or by getting 'points' in the equally high-stakes culture of backstabbing, gossip, publish-or-perish, and petty departmental power politics that so many universities and colleges are rife with. Yes, that's my outloud voice.
"I had a dream in which I took an essay exam and answered each question in different colored crayon and even one in red lip pencil. So, dreams are strange, and this one I think reflective of my desire to be rewarded for creativity, as well as for my astute use of lip liner." - Excerpt from personal e-mailIt is true, I did have that dream while attending graduate school and sent above e-mail to one of my faculty mentors (later friend), David Olsen. I also included it in my graduate thesis for reasons waaaaaaaay too post-modern-literary-theoretical-ethnographic-subject-objective for me to even remember; as a matter of fact, there are portions of that thesis after a recent re-reading I found utterly incomprehensible, ridiculous, and pretentious, and not in a good way.*
HOWEVER.
Above quote is not such an example; in fact, it remains to this day one of my favorite things to ever tumble out of my brain. It is not an exploded fish. And that it resonates with my niece makes me feel very proud - of myself, and of her - and humble at the same time. Not everyone "gets" that quote, and that she does is very rewarding.
* My experience in academe taught me (among other things) that often utterly incomprehensible, ridiculous, and pretentious academic writing is highly rewarded, whether materially by corporate academic sponsors, or by getting 'points' in the equally high-stakes culture of backstabbing, gossip, publish-or-perish, and petty departmental power politics that so many universities and colleges are rife with. Yes, that's my outloud voice.
