Don't Panic

Don't Panic....no other time in recent memory has the cover of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy been more true for what has truly been a fucked up week. Mother earth has, in the last fourteen days, showed its crueler tendencies with devastating weather patterns in almost every place in the south that I have lived and held dear with family and friends ( tornadoes at home in Tuscaloosa and biblical flooding in Memphis), reminding me that whatever I thought in the past about what I can lose on a personal level has never even been scratched on the surface.

Above weather shenanigans have also somehow dovetailed into current political and life altering events at the old academy as well. I was informed by my advisor/mentor/chair/thesis guru after almost three years of working together on my degrees and the English Journal that she was leaving before the next semester to take a position at another university. What this means for me is the following:

1) I no longer have a GA or GRA position w/ the university, which meant that I lost my paycheck and tuition being paid by the university.

2) All of my research dealing with reading, standards, and the secondary english classroom was done working with this person, and was heavily influential in the areas of study I have pursued the last few years

3) This person was my only advisor for my entire graduate career, and, to give an idea about perspective on this, I am only two semesters short of finishing my coursework.

So yes, I am in limbo right now. This stress is compounded with the fact that I have to begin working on an independent pilot study for the Fall like yesterday, coursework to complete this summer, two promised conference proposals (AESA & AERA), and probably a bunch more if I really wanted to put it out there, but I'll spare the other details.

Now, all this happens. A man is down. feeling a bit kicked in the teeth, and needs something beautiful and moving and inspiring to remind him that its ok. That's where this came in :

http://brianoliu.com/ebook/

It put some things in perspective, about my hometown, the people here, and the people who wont give up on it. So next time I run into the person this week who said to me over coffee how much they hate Tuscaloosa I have to say..... fuck you. We indeed run this. And I thank the writers, citizens, and other unbelievably generous people all around the southeast for reminding me that indeed the best thing to do is-- Don't Panic.