My Journey
I like the idea of a sprouted mind. When I started graduate school, I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew. The learning process took me on a roller-coaster ride and some days I walked around amazed at my new knowledge and other days I wanted to unlearn everything. One of my classes required the book, The Moviegoer by Walker Percy , and I was introduced to my favorite word, ennui. I loved that this word described an odd state of mind where even the body aches with banal repetition of everydayness. Fast forward to the final year of completing my doctoral degree. I somehow managed to complete my dissertation during my son’s first year of life. I went back to work when he was three months old and thought it would be a seamless adjustment. Reflectively, I’ll describe it as blissful ignorance when it came to what to expect with postpartum hormones, work obligations, and home obligations. I lived in a state of ennui just trying to exist and keep my little human alive. The f