A word of advice from our sponsors

A few weeks ago (maybe it was last week? Maybe it was yesterday? What is time? All I do is read, sleep and go to class.) a friend of our professor and scholar in her own right came to class for a little impromptu visit. Her dry wit and canny remarks were a pleasant change of pace for the typically heavy theory class. She spoke for a few minutes about her own experience sitting in our seats as first year PhD students trying to tackle the world of academia.

She told a story about sitting in the theory class not having any communication background and wondering what in the world everyone was talking about. So when other people nodded, she nodded too. Some of the words sounded like English and those were comforting, but most of class was like listening to a combination of an unknown language and made up sounds. Fearing that this was going to end her foray into communication, she started looking into other programs on campus. Her background in social work lead her to the PhD in social work across campus, but they wanted an MS for admission. One day in the grad office she started talkin to her fellow cohort members about how confusing and disheartening theory was. She mentioned to them that she wasn't even sure if she was cut out for this program because she was so lost. They looked at her and said, but we nod in class because you do. We have no idea what's going on either. She does stay in Comm in the end and graduates with all kinds of accolades. But her parting words to our class were: "so if you're lost, just keep going I guess." 

It's almost fall break here (days left). Until then, just keep going I guess.