One of my unofficial mentors was the first person not on my committee to congratulate me on passing my qualifying exams. Like me, she's almost always in the building, but she seemed especially present on the 7th floor last Wednesday. Before my exams she kept telling me not to worry and that the exam (especially the oral) was just a formality. But I did worry. I didn't want to be the first person to ever flunk a formality! I think I've mentioned before that this woman has had my back since the Fall Welcome meeting my first year here. She has never steered me wrong and it's her voice that supplies the logic and reason for my interior monologues, dialogs or conversations.
She encouraged me to think about the images I wanted to project of myself as I move through this new stage in my career. I responded, "Well, technically, not yet...I don't have the Ph.D, so I actually don't have to start acting and looking more professorial.""Point taken, Valerie. But you could at least start comporting yourself more like a lecturer."
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