Yesterday I met with a professor in the department. We have to write a paper about someone's scholarly trajectory, but at least we picked the person to talk about.
We sat down in her office and she began to tell me the story of how she came to do communication studies. Weaving in and out of her narrative were these ideas of staying true to who you are, being consistent with what you believe. At the very end of the hour she talked about how from one angle, a crystal has many facets, they each are a little differently shaped, each refracts light a little different direction. This imagery comes from Tracy and Trethewey (2005). But in her view (and I believe she cited an idea from a dissertation not her own. I wish I remembered her name), a crystal emits its own central light, something from its core. People may perceive that light differently depending on how that shines in their direction, but the core remains unchanged.
Maybe it's an apt metaphor for the day and the beginning of the school year. There's something innate about you, about me as individual people. Beings in this world of light. The goal then is to know how to maintain that fire, keep the self preservation strong and keep true to your own light.
Keep your light friends. Let other people deal with how they see it.
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