My Oscar Speech! (Also known as "pats on the back all around!")

Well, folks, I have my first essay back from grading. The class is English Literature, something like from 1600 to 1800. A lot of Restoration and such. In my paper I argued that Dryden's poem, "MacFlecknoe" has it's legs cut off by Rochester's "A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind." I went into it figuring there were some deep philisophical tensions implied by pitting the poems against eachother, but I really couldn't get a handle on these, so I went ahead and wrote the paper. My strongest argument was that Dryden's speaker -- who is only directly speaking at the beginning of the poem, and indirectly speaks as he quotes Mac -- takes the position of superior on the basis of imagining itself a literary giant, and this attitude is what Rochester's speaker chiefly attacks in Satyr. Weaker but also significant was my claim that the wit used in Mac, the satire, was weak and didn't appear to help the speaker acheive the status that it was trying so desperately to both hold on to and establish; the result being that Dryden's poem reads as a panicked attempt to hold on to the trasitory experience of being "great" and Rochester's arguments being strengthened and becoming more firmly established due to their ability to scrutinize other works through them with less support through sentiment and appeal to pathos.

And, my dears, I got an A. Hooray! The first A of the semester. It's always a boost; a little shower of relief; a reassuring touch; a spark of understanding between teacher and pupil.

I'm not admittedly superstitious, but there is something nice about the first grade of the semseter being a mark of excellence. It sets the tone for a semester of hard work and payoff. It's not so much that I invest mass amounts of time to school -- I'm rather lazy, if you must know -- but I do really try to use my noodle as much as possible. And sometimes going with your gut, which I am inclined to do, even when you think you aren't giving the instructor what they want, necessarily, can help you grow, intellectually as well as emotionally, because when you give your ideas credence by writing about them in a formal essay, you do yourself a good service. Even if I don't get the highest mark, I can say with some passion that I always try to follow a voice from within, and even though I recognize that voice as having small chance of being truly original, I come away with a scant impression that I have tried to be true to myself.

I'm sure this reads as very self-congratulatory, but really, I almost have to continue to convince myself that in going to school, in following my dream to be a writer, I am overcoming some obstacles in my life...proving to myself that I too am alive...

Well, this got altogether far too existential for enjoyment. But please don't forget that there are students out there that appreciate recognition, and don't simply slave for the A, but work toward standards of excellence, standards that are a part of their inner make-up, and who are truly grateful for the opportunity to take great risks, and relish a good reward.