... Graduating!
Celebrating...
also so incredibly grateful to have shared them with you. I’ m still sorry— really sorry, especially in the case of my brief but inexplicable semi-colon phase of sophomore year, where every sentence had to have a semi colon … or two— but I hope that what you take away from this is gratitude. So to all of the professors: thank you for answering all of the semi-hysterical emails, for decoding all of my messy, half-formed comments during class discussions, and for never once making any of us feel lesser for still having so much to learn. Thank you for caring about us as people as well as students, for the feedback that, though temporarily devastating, made us better writers in the process, and for always, always being there to help.
As I have said, I can only really speak for myself, but I know I have never met teachers who care so powerfully about their students or who put so much time and care into helping them grow. This department is full of amazing educators and intellectuals and amazing people, and I don’ t think the other graduates in the room would disagree with me when I say that some of us might not be walking the stage on Saturday if it were not for the constant support that this Department has shown us. So to the professors: really and truly, thank you for everything.
To the Graduates: This is the part where things get a little messy, because while there is no doubt in my mind that I am thankful for the last four years I have spent here that is just about the only thing in my life that I’ m sure of right now. I know that I am absolutely terrified— right now specifically but also just in a general sense— but aside from that graduation is this terribly confusing mixture of sadness and elation and crippling anxiety.
As I was writing this— or, more accurately, as I was hunched over my desk, not writing but instead complaining very loudly about not knowing what to write— I got a little bit of inspiration from a coworker. He knew vaguely what I
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