Oh, the Places You'll Go!

In the graduation classic, Oh, The Places You'll Go!, Dr. Seuss writes, 

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

With all due respect to Dr. Seuss, and with the greatest appreciation of his assurance that I have brains in my head as sure as I have feet in my shoes, I have to clarify: I write mostly about myself on this blog because I'm uncomfortable trying to speak on the behalf of anyone else, but I am most certainly not on my own.  I think I've made clear here in the blogosphere how hard I've worked to earn my Master's in English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland.  For this accomplishment, though, I want to stop and take a minute to celebrate the support I've received from all of the people who make sure I am never on my own, and without whom I am sure I could not be so successful in my studies.

Billy has been here with me for every single step, every single word.  I'm a lot of things, but I'm not very balanced, and if left alone, I'd let my academic pursuits completely consume me.  I'd burn pretty brightly, but I also know I'd burn out pretty quickly.  Billy helps me maintain a slow, steady burn by simultaneously supporting my academics and reminding me that there are things outside school that take priority.  And when my flame flickers, he fuels me by finding different ways to remind me that I can succeed because I've always succeeded before.

It's a cyclical thing, this success:  I've always succeeded before because I've always been told I can.  My mom and dad have been nurturing my love of books since before I entered school.  They've always put them in my hands, helped me open the doors, and helped walk me through them until I gained the courage and confidence to walk through the doors on my own.  I have yet to figure out how my parents brought me up to believe I could be one of the best at the things I tried.  I think this is an important distinction: I can never remember thinking I was the very best at anything, but I have always felt like I was among the best.  This attitude they've helped me nurture keeps me reaching higher but also keeps me (I hope) from stepping on anyone else to get there.

In addition to being a good student, I take pride in being a good classmate.  I really care about what other people are thinking, I listen to them when they are speaking, and I really think hard about the ideas they're pitching.  (Sometimes I think this borders on annoying them, when I continue asking them questions about their ideas, or suggesting other points of view, but I can't help that I find their ideas so interesting.)  I think I'm a good classmate because I have such good siblings.  Since I'm the middle child, I've never been on my own in my family, either.  My brother, sister, and brother-in-law regularly ask me to explain myself, listen to my point of view, and suggest their own ideas that are similar to and different from my own.  Plus, we have a lot of fun together, which also helps to remind me that I'm not just a brain inside a head.

While my own parents and siblings helped develop me into the type of person I am, my in-laws are the "boots on the ground" support through the daily rigors of my academic schedule.  One of the difficulties the humanities are facing right now is that the work we do can't be easily explained in bullet points or measured by statistics.  The Morris/DePriests are a pretty left-brained family: we've got a lawyer, a physicians assistant, a nurse and a kinesiologist in training, and employees of the National Security Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute.  Literary studies is pretty far afield from these types of scientific, legal, and medical interests, but since I'm interested in it, they're interested in supporting me in it, and that has meant a lot to me these past two years.  (There are two other English degrees in the family, though, so I'm not completely alone.) : )

I've also been fortunate enough to find support within my own program.  I'm pictured here with Kent Cartwright, our department chair and the big boss in my office, and Kandice Chuh, the outgoing director of Graduate Studies and the director of my MA Writing Project.  Both were given awards for their guidance and mentorship by the Graduate English Organization this year, and it's as if I was asked to choose the recipients of these honors myself.  Kandice helped me to believe I was capable of getting into the PhD program and also worked to convince the admissions committee I was capable of succeeding in it.  Kent made sure that despite budget cuts, there were a good number of spots available in the PhD program, and so at the end of the day, here I am, in the PhD program and forever indebted and appreciative to the two of them.

So here we all are!  It meant more to me than I can express to have so many of the family members who made my degree possible there with me to celebrate my graduation.  I'm also thankful to all the family members who couldn't make the trip but who were there to celebrate with me in spirit, and those who joined us the following day at our house to celebrate my accomplishments along with Billy's and Vickie's.

I'm not on my own, and I couldn't have done all of this on my own.  Thank you, from deep down within me, to all of you who have made it possible for me to pursue the work that I believe is so important and that I find so fulfilling.