Missing Person: Academic Coma Likely

My mom and I recently discussed how I tend to disappear from the world when I’m writing.  Most people who read this blog have been students at some point (and a few of you still are), so you know the all-consuming act that is researching, outlining, writing, and editing a paper.  Add that to my already overly-analytical, “I don’t hear anything; I’m reading” personality and you have a recipe for Missing Person: Academic Coma Likely.

Missing Person: maxi dress (thrifted, $2), sandals (gift), jewelz (various places for way cheap), belt (borrowed/stolen).

The particular paper I’ve spent the last (too long) while writing is a bigger deal than normal.  It’s about a topic personally dear to me, it’s the first act of exploring my future dissertation, and it’s going to be peer reviewed by my closest colleagues.  Next week I’ll have a two hour session in which questions, critiques, and suggestions will all be aimed at my little paper.  Soooo…when I suddenly stopped commenting on your blog or posting on mine, this is what I’ve been doing.  (Note: I may have also been lost in the giant library of my university, but that was just that one time.  I generally have a great sense of direction.)

I’m happy to report that the paper is finished and I’ve finally resurfaced.  Today I took a giant nap in the sun (at first I left out the word “nap,” making for a very funny sentence) and rode my bike along the lake for miles.  I rolled up to the gate of my building just as the last note of “Ride of the Valkyries” ended.  How’s that for some Norse god and weird German composer-approved fun?!  Naps, biking, and mythologically inspried symphony- these are the pleasures of a person who woke from the frantic coma of academic writing to find that summer has arrived.  Oh, and maxi dresses and sandals and gleamy jewelry- those are for summer, too.

About these ads