KMR
@birdundrstander
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taurean bonvivant | bird understander, like the poem.
Holt, MI
Joined October 2017
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Pinned Tweet
|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
Your students will learn
more from your kindness
than they will ever learn
from your rigidity or your
strict attendance policies.
Pass it on.
|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿|
||
(\__/) ||
(•ㅅ•) ||
/ づ
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Today I got to tell a student that Appalachian English is a real and valid thing, after she shyly tried explaining her family's dialect as "hillbilly English." She told me she had never known there was a word for it.
Ya'll, this is why teaching linguistic diversity matters.
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Years ago, my brother explained my wife to his sons: “You know how some boys marry girls? Sometimes girls marry girls too. Karen married Chelsea. They’re a family like us.”
“Okay,” his sons said, shrugging. They were 3 and 5.
Everyone survived.
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Brief thread.
Hi, Faculty Friends:
Your students aren't trying to manipulate/grift/cheat you. If you are, that's about them.. not you. Most of them are doing the best they can w what they have & what they know.
So when they say they're struggling/someone died:
Believe them.
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My PhD program paid me $14K a year with no pay in the summers, mandatory $900 student fees every semester, and a clause forbidding me from having any other employment.
50k a year is almost 4x what I made per year. It would have changed my life.
Grad. Students. Deserve. Vetter.
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There's no kind, polite, or compassionate way to ask a student to prove that someone they love just died.
That's it. That's the tweet. Don't @ me.
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Semester "icebreaker" Tip:
Ask your students to share the kindest thing any teacher has ever said to them.
It's my favorite way to start a semester -- curating a community bonded by kindness.
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Believe students. Love students. Trust students.
They want to get smarter, to do well, and to be trusted by you.
It costs you nothing to give them that. Not one cent. Nothing.
Believe. Your. Students.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
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There is literally nothing you have to say that's more important than your students' mental health, well-being, or family. Nothing. No exam, no lecture, nothing.
When you make students ashamed to express vulnerability or pain, you are absolutely discouraging their trust.
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If you require your students to share formal uni paperwork to receive disability accommodations in your class, lemme just tell you this right now: that is a ridiculous, ableist, unfair stance and I am writing a short thread here to tell you why. (1/7)
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Hey. Hey you.
I know you’re scared about tomorrow. & the months that follow. I know you already walk a tightrope, underpaid, overextended. Higher Ed is relentless.
It’s ok to be tired.
What you do is *hard.*
But you’re gonna change lives this year. Hang in there for that.
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Students often undergo all kinds of crises you won't see: poverty, illness, sexual assault, broken hearts, family tragedies, stressors of every variety.
You go through those things, too.
Isn't it better when someone gives you the benefit of the doubt?
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
Your students deserve
trust and dignity even
(especially) when they
can’t seem to meet
your arbitrarily set
deadlines. Pass it on.
|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿|
||
(\__/) ||
(•ㅅ•) ||
/ づ
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Also, making anybody ashamed to express grief, sorrow, stress, anxiety, etc. just because YOUR EGO can't handle them missing YOUR BRILLIANCE for an hour and a half on a Tuesday says so much more about you than it does about whatever's motivating their absence. Truly. It does.
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And here's the thing: Even if I had been lying, so what? Refer back to my second tweet. There is NOTHING any of us have to say, share, teach, pontificate about, etc. that's more important than loving a student as a person, first. They are living lives, not just attending school.
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Both my grandparents were killed in a car accident on the same day. Also, my mom had aggressive cancer all throughout undergrads. I was an AMAZING student, still, & the indignity of having to prove their deaths and her illness was devastating to me.
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I was asked by a history prof to bring a newspaper obituary, a program from their funeral, and any other "proof" I had that linked our relation. It was already a traumatic experience to lose half my family out of nowhere; it was doubly so to be treated as criminal because of it.
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RT if you are an English/writing/language expert (think MAs and PhDs on these topics) and you personally are FINE with singular "they" being used as a pronoun.
I'm so tired of ignorant grammar pedants spitting weak game.
Hardly any actual scholars are against singular they.
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Y’all, I just submitted my first book proposal and I am, quite literally, shaking.
💀
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BIG, EXCITING NEWS:
I’ve accepted the position of Associate Director of
@WCMSU
at Michigan State!
& best of all: MSU made Stacia a professorial offer, too.
We’ve solved the two-body problem (after living 10+ hrs apart this year) & we’re headed to East Lansing!
SO. MUCH. JOY.
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Driving home.
Mom looks out the window pensively, murmurs:
“She’s gonna come any day now. Looking for her money. I need to talk to daddy. I need to be ready. She could come any day. I never know.”
Me: wtf? Who?
Mom, gravely: The little girl who sells me my Girl Scout cookies.
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OK, I have to say it:
Salaried faculty using this time to write op eds, tweets, and other media about how HORRIBLE their lives/jobs/this stress are need to get a goddam grip.
You’re home safe & being paid.
Others are facing extreme financial & health precarity right now.
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HEY. YA'LL. In happier news:
I've just accepted as position as Assistant Teaching Professor of English here at Penn State.
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No one:
Absolutely no one:
Emphatically, no one:
Not one person:
Crappy Anonymous Twitter Professor Account: HAR HAR ITS NEARLY DEAD GRANDAD SEASON HAR HAR SURE KIDDO I BET
Ya'll, grow up. Be kind. Show grace. Have mercy. Stop tweeting rotten things about your students.
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What's your
#pedagogy
in ten words or less?
Mine:
"Students are whole & valid; believe and love them."
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Tell me, friends:
What is the kindest thing
a professor,
colleague,
or student
has ever said to you?
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Some days are So. Hard.
But then I graded essay proposals re: why students wanted to become writing tutors. Nearly every student used the phraseology/ideology of meeting another student's anxiety with love.
They want to meet anxiety with love.
Something's working.
#wcjoy
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Both my grandparents really did die in a car accident when I was in college. My professor demanded I bring her a copy of their funeral mass cards proving we shared a family name. I’ve never felt so degraded by someone I had trusted.
Shame on profs who thrive on shaming students.
Students with dead grandparents is not a funny joke. Stop making it. Stop laughing at it. Stop punching Down.
Students feel they have to lie to teachers, because teachers turn the complexity of their lives into a punchline. To encourage honesty, approach students with empathy.
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Why is everyone mocking Pete Davidson for living w his mom?
BET that if my mental health were suffering & my relationships otherwise weren’t good, I’d wanna set up camp w the most stable & loving person in my life until I felt better.
Y’all need to find better things to mock.
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You know what makes the semester startup easier? If every morning, you wake up, and think about the incredible lives your students will lead (and already do lead), and smile, and say to yourself: You know, I'm just gonna love them today. I'm gonna come from a place of love today.
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Raise your hand if you'd be fine with academic conferences either catering a v simple lunch or not providing meals, blocking hotel rooms at local inns and reasonably priced chains, and not giving out swag bags so that more people could afford to attend.
Why is that so hard?
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Hot Take: University Staff often need Fall Break just as much, if not more, than their students do -- & it's brutal to plow through uninterrupted in a field that often demands 24/7 access to you, a truckload of emotional labor, & inadequate pay.
I. Want. A. Fall. Break.
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CW: Suicide. Short thread.
A friend & colleague, whose name I'll omit out of decency, took her own life this weekend. I'm devastated. She was bright, kind, & someone I really believed in. Her death is a shock and a battering-ram of grief.
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If you’re an academic who is suffering on the inside and can’t keep up this semester, just remember:
Your work isn’t your life.
YOU are your life.
Qua Toni Morrison: “You your best thing.”
You’re gonna be okay.
It’ll all be okay.
Take a breath.
It’s okay.
You’re okay.
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In all my life, I’ll never understand how TT faculty can look at grad students — adults, scholars, parents, & human beings in their own right — & endorse poverty-level wages, the indignity of union prohibition, & the sloughing off of their own supposed pedagogical labor.
HOW?
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Another from me: A woman I admired who works in WC Studies w me called me "such a millennial." I took offense, but she explained: "You have beautiful communication skills. Kindness. Empathy. Gentleness. That's what I mean. Millennials have that."
Readers, she's now my girlfriend.
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@_JSamuels_
As a 35yo queer woman who has been a consistent fan of the W since early childhood, it makes me very very very sad that the league doesn’t talk about that part of its history. Make up lessons, dress codes… queer erasure. Breaks my heart.
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In less lofty thoughts: I got myself to my new apartment complex’s gym for the first time today. I ran a few miles. Did a Peloton cooldown. And felt really relieved that I’d sloughed off depression and anxiety enough to go and get it done.
Depression: 0
Karen: 💯
Onward. 💪🏻
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To everyone wondering: JOYFUL NEWS!
The press is interested, and wants a full prospectus.
I CANNOT EVEN COPE WITH MY HAPPINESS.
Y’all, I just submitted my first book proposal and I am, quite literally, shaking.
💀
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Accommodations almost always require a formal diagnosis. Barriers to GETTING a formal diagnosis are enormous, expensive, & VERY slow.
It took me 7 MONTHS from beginning the process to getting a copy of paperwork. And that's without trying to give that paperwork to anyone. (2/7)
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I have 2 more thoughts on this "Dr. title" business.
1. It reeks of privilege to be so respected/heard in your everyday life that you flippantly declare nobody should care about titles. As junior faculty, lemme tell you, people care about my title. Ageism is REAL.
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One more thing.
I'll spit venom at anyone who wants to boil this down to a question of personal health/responsibility. The terrible mental & emotional health conditions of early career academics are SYSTEMIC, INSTITUTIONAL, and IMPLICIT in how we engage ourselves/ our careers.
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What if I told you that the actual most important thing about your job is the kindness, patience, and compassion you show your students — and yourself?
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let's all just admit it to one another:
nobody looks at linkedin
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When I took this job,
I hoped it would teach me joy.
It does. I’m learning.
#pedagogyhaiku
#DigPed
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Pedagogy Tip of the Day:
Always analyze which of your classroom practices are ableist, or only serve students who fit your prefab ideation of who a "student" might be.
Examples to follow in a short thread.
Read, RT, pass it on, etc.
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Recently, I taught a guest lecture at a prison. When going thru security, I set off the alarm. Guard quietly asked if I was wearing a binder (I was). She said OK, & barely patted me down.
In a world of shitty, invasive TSA searches, it was just such a simple kindness & dignity.
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I’ll let you in on a secret re: The Gay Agenda (at least, My Gay Agenda).
My PhD = 35% about me wanting to be called “Dr.” instead of a gender-specific title like Ms., as I prefer it to alternatives like Mx.
WE ALL OUT HERE GETTING EDUCATIONS & SUBVERTING LANGUAGE. O NO!
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Everyone deserves the right to an education.
E V E R Y O N E.
But lord, I feel some type of way to see the generation who destroyed the economy treating education as a cutesy, inexpensive, existential experience while their children & grandchildren are destroyed by loan debt..
Hundreds of baby boomers are taking classes at the University of Minnesota as part of its Senior Citizen Education Program — and all for just $10 per credit.
“This is our opportunity to study those things we’ve spent a lifetime being curious about,” one student tells
@KevTibs
.
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So, I’m getting a divorce. And my mom took down all pics of my soon-to-be-ex-spouse/me that were at her house... and replaced them with stuffed dinosaurs.
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The saddest of sad memoir titles: I’m Moving Across the Country For a New Job That I Was Offered Halfway Through This Month and Their Payroll Didn’t Process My Hire in Time and So I Will Receive Nary a Paycheck Until Sept 31.
Alternative Title: Academia/Broke, Woke, and Tired.
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A little fireside chat.
I remember the 2016 election. Probably, you all do too. I remember the party I was at turning into a screaming match. I remember coming home, slumping to the kitchen floor, sobbing, scared. Wife saying, "I will love & protect you no matter what they do."
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I remember asking my PhD chair what the process was for publishing an article for the first time.
She told me: “I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure that out by yourself.”
I was often left to fend for myself. It sucked. I’ve resolved to never do that to my own grad students.
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@PrimroseRoad
Yeah, that's how I feel. Sometimes they lie. Okay. But even the lie is to cover up an actual reason. And what if they're uncomfortable sharing the actual reason? I'd rather the truth. I forget stuff and oversleep and am messy sometimes too; we're all human together.
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Wait wait wait I forgot to make clear: Getting a diagnosis is NOT the same thing as getting 1) medication, 2) a copy of their own diagnostic results to give to the university, or 3) university approval for accommodations.
I had a TEN WEEK WAIT between DX & getting paperwork.
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PSA:
Hi fellow profs.
Stop expecting the 20-yr old writing tutors who work for me to teach the grammar, & formatting/citation rules that YOU yourself aren’t comfortable to teach/currently teaching in your class.
Do your own work, yeah? If you’re gonna grade on it, teach it.
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SO: if your student realizes in, say, early February that something isn't working for them, and they IMMEDIATELY contact their GP (let's assume they have one, & have insurance), it's very likely they won't have a diagnosis until late March/April. The semester's, like, over. (4/7)
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It takes weeks to get a referral to schedule testing (if your insurance even covers it).
It takes months (usually) for the testing to finally happen.
It takes another FULL MONTH to wait for follow-up & diagnosis.
Then, the shuffle with insurance & meds begins. Awful. (3/7)
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So before you make students show you paperwork so that you'll flex a deadline / whatever it is they need, just remember that even if they started in NOVEMBER they probably wouldn't have the paperwork you wanted by APRIL.
& then get over yourself & do the decent thing. FFS. (7/7)
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Think about your classroom as a community.
Think about how you can intentionally encourage a space of trust.
Think about setting the intention of valuing your students’ stories.
My favorite icebreaker (copyright me):
“Tell me the kindest thing a teacher ever said to you.”
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Officially Spartans. Y’all, we did it. Against all odds, we found our way to one another and we. did. it.
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This is a thread for grad students who are feeling entirely drained & even embarrassed at how relieved they feel that the semester is over -- that they don't need to see their cohort a few months -- that their advisor plans to be away. I have three pieces of advice for ya'll. /1
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I think a lot about why anybody assumes that whatever they teach in a 75 minute class is worth asking students to brave frostbite-temps, unshoveling vehicles without proper winter clothing/tools, or walking FoReVeR across campuses (including LARGE ones like mine) in windchill.
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So while I am not seeking formal work accommodations, please know that I literally COULD NOT HAVE EVEN BEGUN SEEKING THEM until ten weeks after my diagnostic appointment. People, your students do not have this long to wait if they need your help / flexibility now.
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I'm thinking of
@katespadeny
and of the responses to her suicide. I have some things I really think I want to say, since even though they're not popular things to say it might be important to share them. So:
Thread.
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& y'all, I did all this w/ a Real Job, a stable home life, good insurance, & plenty of support at home. Students, who enduring diagnosis process, are doing so mostly alone. And again: it. takes. months. The anxiety of the waiting is its own nightmare. It's soul-crushing. (6/7)
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I resent that it's considered normal to work 40+ hours a week at my physical desk, teach two classes, AND work several hours at home several nights a week.
I'm not a martyr; I'm just somebody who feels hurt and isolated that I can't breathe when I think about my job this year.
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2. Re: the everyday life bit -- I'm queer. I look queer. I use "Dr." when asked to title myself because it suits me far better than Ms or Mrs. In a world where identity and language are too often weaponized, it's my earned opportunity to affirm my distance from feminized words.
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We found out we can’t reschedule our wedding until a full year from now (next April) for a mix of reasons.
We’ll exchange rings in our backyard on April 25 & consider the marriage begun. Next year, we’ll count the event as our 1st anniversary celebration.
Tryna think positive.
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During my process, I was constantly following up w/ referrals, appts, etc. I also fought for weeks w/ insurance (tg I HAVE insurance) about meds, then had to survive meds titration while still working. Students have to take all these steps too, and it's. so. much. (5/7)
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Today is my last day on campus at Penn State, but it's also my first official day as a Michigan State employee! So... my twitter bio is updated. So's my website and my CV. A new chapter begins, and I feel so ready.
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Brief Thread on Asking for Help.
Today, I was so sad. I told my students, and said I needed their help - needed them to structure class for me, and to decide what we ought to do, and to carry it out. That I wanted to just listen and be with them.
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Tag, my adored cat, has dental surgery today.
He’s scared.
I, admittedly, am scared.
Could you send him some good energy today?
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When your underrepresented students tell you that your coursework, readings, or programming don't reflect or include the world they see...
believe them.
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Now, more than ever, I say: Consider the jr faculty in your lives. Consider the adjunct faculty you know. Be tender. Create support networks. Be transparent. Share your stories. Act like humans. Lead with empathy. We fucking need you. We are dying, out here. Literally dying.
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My divorce is finalized.
Just like that.
Found out through an email.
Happy Friday, ya'll.
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Y’all, it’s already starting: That absolutely gross time of year where so many profs make fun of how their students address them via email/mock students in general. Knock it off. Do you feel big making someone else feel small? Do you feel super extra cool dunking on 18 year olds?
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Also because my wife hates when we are called “Mrs and Mrs” and spent the entirety of my PhD program telling me: YOU ARE OUR ONLY CHANCE TO FIX IT.
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An early semester reminder:
Your job (or degree) is actually neither your life nor what gives you worth nor what anybody, anywhere, at all, loves about you.
You are wonderful, lovable, valuable. Innately.
Your job = how you make your money.
Don't give it more power than that.
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I turn 30 in 35 minutes. I’m in New Orleans. I’m with Stacia. I saw Big Freedia and Michael Cerveris and bought Fluevogs and a glitter blazer in one weekend and have eaten All The Oysters. I’ve never been so happy in my life, & for the first time, I’m excited to see what’s next.
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What do y'all do when you're so overwhelmed that even managing the most basic task seems too hard?
Essentially: Gimme a thread on your best Struggle Advice.
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📍me
|
|
| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _
|
📍 actual self-care |
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
|
|
|
📍taking pictures of my cat’s toe beans at 3:30 AM while softly singing him Whitney Houston songs
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Thread:
A former professor of mine died by suicide this month. As I teach at my own alma mater (left, got PhD, came back), I am a unique part of a community that knows, loves, and will miss this woman on every level.
I keep thinking: We don't know the legacies we leave behind.
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If you are alone, or scared, or sad, or struggling -- please let me be your friend. Higher ed is lonely. Early career is lonely. New jobs are lonely.
You don't ever have to be alone.
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@ImaniAtkins0n
Clark uses her platform for literally nothing. She’s like the basketball version of Tulsi Gabbard. I have no idea how someone her age can be so invisible in social media spaces, unwilling to do literally anything for anyone else / use platform, etc. Not 1 other rookie is that way
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THREAD. I want to talk to you about what it was like to grow up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a Roman Catholic, and what's helpful or not helpful to say to folks/communities in times like there where yet another hideous ring of abuse has been exposed.
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Hello Twitter. I am writing to you all from my newly-engaged, newly home-owning, freshly-painted-office life to tell you that despite immune system rebellion (cough/sore throat) life is so, so good.
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@tmzinnen
They can write in whatever dialect they’d like; I just need them to cite their sources properly since sounds citation isn’t about identity but rather being able to relocate resources. So they could write wholly in AAVE, as long as their WC is in MLA etc.
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On Lapsed Religion & Grief:
Today, someone I loved died by suicide. I don’t pray or believe in god anymore. But I’m so overwhelmed that he died alone: who would sing him home?
So I played him an entire Catholic mass on the piano. I can feel him here now.
We love you, David.
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weird how the girls who tortured me in high school for seeming/being gay now have lots of gay friends of all genders & see themselves as woke peak allies.
before you revel in your current wokeness, maybe remember whose emotional health you destroyed along the way. please/thanks.
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Fuck, guys. My friend died. In her office. She was a kid. She was someone's child. Someone's professor. Someone's friend. And she was so young. And she deserved a joyful life. And I hope you, me, & all of us can work together to create better, warmer communities for one another.
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