08 Ocak 2021, Perþembe
saat: 00:49
“History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.”
— Kurt Vonnegut
I am tired of bearing witness to historic events. Frankly, even when I heard the news of a coup, I expected more epaulets and tanks, but a bunch of crazies taking selfies all over (and waving the wrong Georgian flags) was all we got. Like a bunch of dumbasses throwing chili powder at each other in Sri Lanka. What a fucking stupid century. This is what our coups look like.
Despite my low productivity yesterday, however, I was able to FINALLY finish & send out the new appendix and edits to the paper, which I worked on earlier in the break and then just kept procrastinating on forever because I knew I had to do some thinking about what we wanted to emphasize & why and I just didn’t want to do it. Now the ball is in my beloved mentor/co-author's court - I just need to a few more paragraphs to respond to the reviewers and I hope we'll be done with this project.
I also feel like I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the capstone seminar nowadays. When I assign things or ask things of students lately I have been trying to ask myself first “what does this cost the student (materially, intellectually, in time/energy, or in terms of possible stress it might introduce into their week)?” and then “is the cost justified?” If it’s not, or if the cost seems too high given how stressed out kids are right now, I have to modify the assignment or figure out a way to incorporate elements of it into class time so I’m not asking them to do more outside of class. If it IS justified (i.e. doing this task is genuinely important to their learning and/or is necessary for me to advise and support them effectively), I have to be crystal clear about how and why I am asking them to do the thing, and if possible, give them some tips and strategies for doing it as efficiently and painlessly as possible. I've settled into accepting that much about them in regard to their regard for me and accepted my enjoyment of their company anyway.
Sylvia Plath once wrote in her journal 'if i get through this year, no matter how badly, it will be the biggest victory i've ever done' and if that's not a mood for 2021, I don't know what is.
