I am more than my thesis.
I am more than my thesis.
I am more than my thesis.
phew…
I am challenging myself to not talk about my thesis for the rest of this post.
Academically, thinking in terms of intersections is not easy. It feels like you can’t fully paint the picture. The minute you include one thing, you can’t get away with not including its intersection, which has other intersections, and those intersections intersect with a bunch of other things. It is endless and it seems a little crazy. Part of learning is recognizing the connections between actors, processes, and theories but at some point these become overwhelming. Then, the task is to whittle down all these connections to what is relevant without destroying the intricacies. I definitely don’t have it all figured out but I don’t think anyone does. This thought is somewhat consolatory.
Intersections are scary. And not just the academic kind. My semester began with a collision at a major intersection. SW Terwilliger and SW Barbur. I now practice an extreme amount of caution around intersections. I look both ways five times before crossing the street. Honestly, I think this collision is probably coloring my perspective of intersections, even the non-car related ones, quite darkly. Does “look both ways” apply to other intersections as well?
I appreciate how Rebecca talks about how aspects of her life come together in unexpected ways. Intersections seem to catch us unaware. Sitting in classes of different disciplines, I don’t expect to learn similar things. I also don’t expect, like Rebecca, to have parts of my home life intersect with my school life. I feel like there are some aspect in my life that I try to keep separate, to compartmentalize. For example, I don’t want to think about school while I am engaged with other aspects of my life.
During the publishing party, Liz, some of the LLC people, and I were talking about what living on campus was like. I remarked how much I appreciated living off campus so I could create this sense of separation from school. I want to feel like I am not just a student. This is directly related to the refrain at the beginning of this post. I am more than my thesis. (Of course, when you spend 13 hours on campus everyday this gets a lot harder to accomplish.) Strangely, this is completely opposite of what the LLC is trying to create. This is not to say that I don’t think that the lines between academia and home life shouldn’t be crossed or blurred. As a first year and even a second year, the time you spend in dorms is extremely important to create a community. I think this community is stronger when it can be space to foster deeper thinking and exist at the intersection of academia and home life.