Hi, My Name is...
Well, I'm not going to tell you that. I'll explain why in a future post.
This first post is more about why I'm doing this. ("So, what brings you to this bloghost?") I'm a graduate student, which means that I'm apprenticed to academia. However, I am missing some skills. I'm hoping this blog will help me practice them.
(1) I lack fluency. Speaking and writing do not come easily to me. While this blog won't help me with the speaking part, I'm hoping that it will help with the writing.
(2) I can't let go. I'm one of those annoying nerdy types who always needs to explicate everything, no matter how unimportant. I'm going to try to use this to let go of that. Two examples (because this is a learning process, and I'm not going to be perfect right off the bat): A, I'm going to want to come back and edit this entry. I know there's going to be something I'll think I should have written better. While I will have a chance to do that in regular writing, I don't have that chance when speaking; hopefully this process will harden me to it. B. I left a comment on someone's blog the other day. It wasn't detailed enough, and the blogger misunderstood, but in a way that was not pertinent to the discussion. That's the important part. If it was pertinent, I'd try to fix the impression I left, but since it's not, I shouldn't. It's all about learning to let go.
(3) I need to be braver. I need to open myself to not being perfect. I know -- really, I so know -- that no one is perfect, but I don't behave like I know that. I'm afraid of failure, and I need to stop that. Which brings me to...
(4) I can't handle constructive criticism. If I am in fact braver on this blog than in real life, it will hopefully lead to some discussions where not everyone agrees with me, and will have reasons why I might want to change my mind. Seeing as most of my readers (invited or directed, anyway; I don't know about people who just "find" this) are academics, y'all will understand why this is so important.
(5) Time management. And having said that, I'm going to try to go do some work.
This first post is more about why I'm doing this. ("So, what brings you to this bloghost?") I'm a graduate student, which means that I'm apprenticed to academia. However, I am missing some skills. I'm hoping this blog will help me practice them.
(1) I lack fluency. Speaking and writing do not come easily to me. While this blog won't help me with the speaking part, I'm hoping that it will help with the writing.
(2) I can't let go. I'm one of those annoying nerdy types who always needs to explicate everything, no matter how unimportant. I'm going to try to use this to let go of that. Two examples (because this is a learning process, and I'm not going to be perfect right off the bat): A, I'm going to want to come back and edit this entry. I know there's going to be something I'll think I should have written better. While I will have a chance to do that in regular writing, I don't have that chance when speaking; hopefully this process will harden me to it. B. I left a comment on someone's blog the other day. It wasn't detailed enough, and the blogger misunderstood, but in a way that was not pertinent to the discussion. That's the important part. If it was pertinent, I'd try to fix the impression I left, but since it's not, I shouldn't. It's all about learning to let go.
(3) I need to be braver. I need to open myself to not being perfect. I know -- really, I so know -- that no one is perfect, but I don't behave like I know that. I'm afraid of failure, and I need to stop that. Which brings me to...
(4) I can't handle constructive criticism. If I am in fact braver on this blog than in real life, it will hopefully lead to some discussions where not everyone agrees with me, and will have reasons why I might want to change my mind. Seeing as most of my readers (invited or directed, anyway; I don't know about people who just "find" this) are academics, y'all will understand why this is so important.
(5) Time management. And having said that, I'm going to try to go do some work.
posted by ceresina at 11:00 AM
1 Comments:
Hi C! Thanks for visiting over at my place. And....I can totally relate to every one of these. Totally. Like, to the point where I wonder if this post is really, secretly about me. :)
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