“It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave.”
~Anatole Broyard
Its a little bit frightening to admit, but I feel a little nostalgic about school today.
Its Monday before Christmas, and I have a lot of work to do. The lab is completely empty except for me. Its a double-sized lab, with two full labs connected into one big giant lab (by graduate school standards), which means it feels two-times as empty right now.
Graduate school hasn't been, most of the time, the greatest experience for me. However, being here alone, now, it is a little sad to me. The quote I chose for this blog entry I believe sums up my own experience and feelings perfectly.
I remember joining the prestigious Unadkat Lab. I remember it was packed with people to the point that there was no room for me to have a desk in the lab. When there finally was (another year later) I crammed into a nook and watched the machine whirring around me. It was impressive to say the least.
The lab is still prestigious, but now it stands mostly empty. I am getting ready to graduate. The people I knew over the years have either left for faculty positions or graduated. The science machine that we call Unadkat Industry is now little more than a messy storage space.
It is noisy with silence.
And as bad as things have been, I miss the buzz of activity, the pressure to work because everyone else is working, the lab meetings with standing room only.
This too shall pass.
2 comments:
I was awed to have been able to visit your lab that day awhile back, Aaron. And while I may not know much of what your life has been like there, at school, I can acutely understand the emotion you are feeling. Yes, that too will pass, but, when you think about it, it's a pretty damned exquisite emotion to be able to feel, and put words to so eloquently, as you have.
Thanks, man.
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