You can’t always wait for the perfect time. Sometimes, you have to dare to do it because life is too short to wonder what could have been.
Blessings
I try to count my blessings everyday because there is always, always, always, something to be grateful for. #alltheblessings
Gloria Steinem is 80
Gloria Steinem turned 80 this week. The following quotes were compiled by Shape magazine. I’ve bolded some of my favorites!
1. “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”
2. “We are becoming the men we wanted to marry.”
3. “We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons…but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”
4. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
5. “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
6. “So whatever you want to do, just do it. Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential.”
7. “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.”
8. “Once we give up searching for approval, we often find it easier to earn respect.”
9. “Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.”
10. “Women have two choices: Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.”
11. “Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.”
12. “Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.”
13. “Self-esteem isn’t everything; it’s just that there’s nothing without it.”
14. “Don’t think about making women fit the world—think about making the world fit women.”
15. “The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.”
16. “We are the women our parents warned us against, and we are proud.”
17. “If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?”
18. “One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the Earth!”
Here’s an interview with her as well.
Day 70–Reflection
Today marks day 70 of my 90 day project, and I never could have predicted the influence this blog and writing would have on my life in just the last couple of months. I got behind while I was in Indianapolis for my big conference, but I backdated some posts and realized that today marks 20 days until I turn 40. I’ve always been a “pay it forward” kind of person, but I had no idea of the real reach of the blog until my professional conferences, ATTW and CCCCs, last week. Because so many of my professional connections are also deeply personal, and because I link to the blog from facebook and twitter where I have many connections with people from numerous times in my life, last week was really shocking in the number of people following and reading my blog.
I am most grateful that taking the time for this blog and writing has also primed my research writing in ways I never could have predicted given my last 6 years directing the undergraduate and graduate programs in my dept. It also has me reflecting on the work I do as a teacher, researcher, administrator, and colleague in my field. The blog allows me to become vulnerable in ways that are incredibly empowering. And as I tell stories that weave my own embodied experiences with what research and scholars in the field are saying or what I’m reading, I become increasingly excited about the new research projects I am working on. (Thanks to a super smart scholar who brought up vulnerability as a professional, teacher, and researcher at the table I was facilitating during the women in tc luncheon last week.) It’s a real take-away for me and time to do some of this important, hard work.
Last week was amazing and exhausting, inspiring and re-energizing, but I spent lots of time thinking really hard, discussing complex ideas, meeting new people, making introductions, and laughing. I helped plan and then facilitated a table at our 2nd annual women in tech comm luncheon. During this time, we had the opportunity to enact mentoring networks, meet new people, and plan active solutions to issues. I presented on a panel with some fabulous and smart colleagues where we had some engaging questions; I responded to a panel by 3 incredibly smart, insightful colleagues conducting research related to bodies, risk, and data in tech communication. Asking questions and responding to their work really helped me understand what they were doing and what continues to need to be done. I chaired a panel where 3 pedagogical models for teaching technical comm were presented. All three helped model for us what we should be striving for in the classroom. It is an intense experience, and yet one I would never trade in. While from a far and through photos, it looks like all we do s have fun, I can assure you the learning and thinking is work, but it’s incredibly rewarding and empowering work. For those in our field and also attending the conferences, I am sure my experiences are not unique. And while I really need sleep at my age, I went without it on a number of evenings to have more time to talk with folks I get to see once, maybe twice, a year.
I’ve also decided that working and learning from new faculty and graduate students as well as other colleagues is the secret to a long and rewarding career. Also, making productive trouble but that’s for another blog entry. And so now that I’m back, I’m surprisingly re-energized even as I’m exhausted, but I will take it!
Mondays
This is how all Mondays should begin, but especially the one after my professional conferences! This from one of my the PhD students who graduated in the fall. Very cool!
Red Highlights
Those of you who follow me on facebook might have noticed some redish highlights in my hair. This is something I did over spring break for a bit of change, and I am also letting my hair grow. I can almost put it in a ponytail, which makes me very happy for jogging purposes. So here’s a couple of pics from when it was first done. I loved the responses from folks at ATTW/CCCCs! So much fun!
Walking
Sometimes I walk on my rest days, and this infographic reminded me of the benefits of walking. I really like that it can ease stress in 10 minutes. 10 minutes. Who doesn’t have 10 minutes?
Knowing yourself
I love Amy Poehler, and this quote rings true! Enjoy!
Spring
Today is the first day of spring, and I spent most of the day inside a hotel at a conference in Indy, so I have no idea what the weather is like. While 
I’m pretty content year-round, and I obviously love the other seasons for what they offer, the spring is special and always has been. Maybe it’s because I was born in the spring or it usually involves the end of a school year or I’m a succor for a good metaphor. Nothing says spring like newness, growth, renewel. The changes to the landscape happen fast as things start to grow after being dormant during the dormant mouths. It’s also really nice to have daylight hours. Not sure it will feel spring-like when I return to Greenville, but the spring is coming, all of the new plants are budding, and I am excited to see all that our new home has to offer as the flower beds begin to bloom. It’s been almost a year since we found and visited E2 Manor. I will have to look up the exact date. I could never have predicted just how happy we are in our new home and the enormous number of memories we’ve shared with friends and family already.
Mentors
I have been lucky in life to have exceptional mentors at various stages in my life, and without them, my journey might have taken a different path. Today, I’ll give a presentation on mentoring networks at the ATTW conference where I’ll offer some suggestions on building them and sustaining them through stages in an academic career. A video one of my colleagues and I created back in 2008 will be shown at the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition, and we’ll celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary. Here I’ll join a community of scholars and teachers to remember Win Horner, a really important mentor. She died in February, and I have linked to some incredible articles that document her contributions to the field.
While she mentored many, many women (and men) over the years, I was incredibly blessed to have had several opportunities to have one on one conversations with her and tour Amsterdam with her while attending an international conference while a graduate student.
Win Horner, 1922-2014 – Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: Obituaries.
