For today, just some idle observations:
- I still find it somewhat disorienting to have become "Dr. Martinson." In the classroom and in emails, it's all good, but in rehearsals, or with some of the students with whom I am close, it's a little stuffy feeling. I have no idea what to call myself for this grant program I will be working on over the summer.
- I need to carve out time to write my own research, even as I am developing, teaching, and grading. I went months without writing my own stuff. I think I even went months without reading outside of textbooks. This must change.
- I missed out on a lot of valuable professional lessons as a graduate student - I treated grad school like a lifestyle and did not consider clearly enough the job training element of it. My mistakes aren't irreparable, but I see very clearly why it took me so long to land a job, and I see that I must up my game if I am going to be a competitive candidate in the future.
- I value the unique experience that is teaching at Chicago State University. I have always been committed to forging alliances across lines of difference and to thoroughly considering, in the hopes of dismantling, discrimination based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and other differences. CSU, a primarily black institution, allows me to live this commitment and to deepen my understanding of the operations of oppression and my own place of privilege within our society.
