Beginning Tomorrow

So it's supposed to be a beginning. That's why they call it commencement. I wonder if the speaker tomorrow will mention that. I'm sure it get mentioned all the time.

I can barely believe I survived this semester. I took on five classes, and all five of them were demanding. I have never read nor written so much in such a short period of time. I wrote around fifteen papers, I think. I read about thirteen novels, plus other miscellaneous stories and stuff. Today, when I realized I was done writing the last paper, I got a little emotional. It was such hard work. This semester more than all the previous ones made me really self-conscious about my writing. I had one professor who kept writing comments on my essays like, "baffling," "confusing," and "wordy." I got so nervous about this one professor (I had him for two classes) that I became really blocked creatively. I had to keep reminding myself that I have good ideas, and if I can just begin to articulate them I can always revise them in the future. He was just sort of...rude. I wonder what he really thought of me. He is this really great, brilliant guy who is known for being really witty, understanding, and the object of academic crushes galore. He is known for hanging out with students, bumming a cigarette, going to the bar. It really sounded like someone that I could get along with. He taught a graduate course this semester on Melville, and so I wanted his feedback on my Moby Dick paper. He never got back to me about it, although he had me email it to him twice. When we would sit down together in his office, he would give me a little bit of advice, like one time he told me this gem: read the MLA Little Brown Handbook. I don't think he was ever, I don't know, bad to me, I just had really high expectations of him going into the semester, and aside from some fun times, he almost always seemed to relish, just a little bit, shutting me down.

Everything else went great. My senior seminar was the best. The instructor was probably my favorite at DH, ever. I gave awesome presentations, and had the best discussions in that class. We read some incredible books, like Everything is Illuminated, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And I had fun with a lot of people in that seminar. We laughed a lot.

Commencement is tomorrow, and for the first time in my life I'm going to participate in a formal graduation ceremony. I'm overwhelmed at the thought of being the first person in my family to graduate from college. And I'm thrilled to have the summer off.

On Monday Todd and I leave for London and Paris. We've never been, and it will be an awesome way to celebrate my success, and our 11th anniversary. So, next time I'll have some photos, and hopefully some great stories to tell.