Yaaaay!!!!!

Today was good. I went and did my whole presentation, and things went really well. It's strange how I am terribly inarticulate when I am in a classroom and am having to wing it as I do on regular day, but when I am prepared ahead of time, like when I have a presentation, things go really well. I'm even a terrible storyteller normally, and the story I told for the senior seminar class went over really well. They laughed quite a bit. They particularly liked the phrase "English major arms." It was pretty funny. The only thing that didn't go well with the presentations is that we members of the panel said some pretty contradictory things. We all have some pretty different experiences in grad school. For instance, I complained about the seeming lack of meaning or reality that sometimes creeps into English grad school for me. I mean, I'm reading a poem by Wallace Stevens, and I typically either think that the poem is utterly meaningless or is so elitist that it's too disconnected from reality for me to find value in (though Wallace would take a lack of reality as a compliment). So anyway, I told the students about my problems with that the key to success in grad school was humility. By that, I meant two things: (1) that they should be humble because each class is a fight to seem smarter than everyone else, and survival means not playing by those rules. I was urging them to develop humility so that seeming really smart wouldn't be so important. (2) That they should develop humility so that they don't forget reality. I'm one of those Paulo Freire sorts of idealists who thinks that any skills with words should be used to help others develop freedom. Anyway, I made all these points about developing humility, and the next guy totally contradicted me by saying that being elitist if totally fine, and is what he has done in grad school, and is what he's very happy about. He's a really nice fellow, but this was certainly a point I disagreed with. Nevertheless, in a really informal setting like this was, there wasn't much room for debate, and I didn't pick a fight. Anyway, I doubt we helped the students that much since we contradicted one another so much. So it goes. I did my part at least, and I felt pretty good about the things I said.

I felt particularly good when the day was over, however. That's because TOMORROW I'M GOING HOME!!! I'm actually excited enough to use all caps and exclamation points--two things I normally hate. I haven't been home in a long time, and I'm really ready to get there and eat some of Mom's and Dad's cooking. I think I'm having fried catfish tomorrow night. It should be great.