the babies are growing up...

The 'part 1' of Internal Imperatives is gone, because I don't think the part 2 is necessary. Well, at least a long part two isn't necessary. I made a pretty Venn diagram illustrating the point of part 2, but until I can figure out the expandable post thing, I'm not going to have a dorky Venn diagram hanging out on my front page. The summary of part 2 is this: Our field is Rhetoric and Composition for a reason. We need to research and theorize in the separate areas in order to make the space where we overlap better. Conversely, we need to understand that the space where we overlap is just as important to each field as the work that is done separately.

See. It only took three sentences, not a whole post.

If there is one universal that graduate school teaches, it is the need for a good party. Here in Middletown we probably take that a little too far at times, but this weekend we actually had a valid reason for throwing a party. Two of our ranks are leaving town for jobs. Not just any job...good tenure track jobs one in Lit and the other in Rhet/Comp. (I know it's amazing isn't it!) Actually, one of the things MU likes to tout is its job placement rate. Anyway, there was just cause for celebration and celebration ensued.

Because this celebration was in honor of her friend Dr. Pib came back to MU to help with the festivites. Dr. P and I always moved in tangential circles, but she is actually an important part of my experience here at MU. She was there in my "Very First Graduate Class EVER" when I began the MA. I wanted to be smart and funny like her. Saturday night we stood in our friend's apartment chatting about my dissertation topic. (She's very nice like that...letting drunk people talk about academic things for a while.) She looked back at Ms. Gossip, who took comps at the same time I did, and said, "It's so fun to see the babies grow up." Now, you might think that I would be offended by that, especially since Dr. Pib is younger than me, but I wasn't.

We are growing up. Intellectually, professionally, even personally throughout this process we are learning how to become independent -- how to leave the comfortable nest that school has become for us. So, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that this process is as confusing, exhausting, and painful as it is. Growing up is never easy.