I don't live in Texas, but your brothers and sisters who visited us in Connecticut during my final stages of dissertation remind me of the craziest period in my life. My first year of teaching at Fairfield University, your sister did a number on me, psychologically, because I needed electricity and, worried we'd be without power, I drove 5 hours to Syracuse so I could write and make progress towards completion in a location I knew I'd be safe.
Academic life is this way.
You are a natural disaster, but so much in academia is self-made, man-made disastrous because those of us who have noses in books, research, teaching, and service tend to be a particular breed of human who take on too much, attempt more than they should, and worry they're never doing enough.
I continue to chisel away at this dossier gig, but at the end of teach day I realize how much more I still need to do. Part of the stress comes from capturing all that has been accomplished, part of it from forgetting items, and most of it in properly articulating it for peers to evaluate. It is a lot. I'd say it is too much but I know so many others before me have accomplished the task at hand and many who follow will have to do the same.
Still, I can't help but think your symbolism is timely, like Sandy, and that you are a symbol of the academic work we take on. I know you wreak havoc on millions and my dossier is only wreaking havoc on me, but I'm ready for recovery, repair, and healing. I look forward to the aftermath, post-traumatically as it is, so I can realign my purposes in life to be more aligned with family, friendships, and the teaching I love.
Be kind to my friends in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't take too much out on them. I promise to do the same for myself as I continue this quest/phase/hurdle in my own professional life.
Today is Saturday. I have two important meetings and more time in the office. It is one day at a time. This is the way history has always been.
Peace,
Bryan
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