A Letter

Dear Universe,

I'm very, very tired. Completing a dissertation, graduating, entering the job market, prepping two brand new classes, fulfilling administrative duties, training 30-something new teaching assistants, doing laundry, writing an essay for publication, teaching knitting lessons, cleaning house, feeding myself, monitoring my diabetes, balancing my checkbook, and planning a wedding all take time and energy.

If you could see fit to stop moving forward, to pause for a moment while leaving me intact in the space-time continuum, making it so that there was a suspension of demands on me and my time for a brief period so that I could get some much needed rest, I would be greatly appreciative. Barring that, arranging for an all-expenses-paid trip to a remote cabin so that I can relax would work wonders.

Many thanks and warmest regards,

A very weary Anita

The Promise of a New Day

I've graduated and am now post-school. It feels strange, this change, because it feels like nothing has changed at all. After spending Saturday morning in a gown that made me look 100 lbs. heavier and then spending the afternoon at a celebratory cookout that sweat 100 lbs. from me, I find myself in the office looking at the same to-do list, the same textbooks in need of a syllabus, the same desk setup, the same semester. They all line up before me to remind me that this change, which my family and friends herald as seismic, is just a pebble around which the river of university life flows onward.

Enough of that drivel. I'll let Paula share my feelings on this occasion.