it is, she sighs, green bottles on the wall time again (and i haven’t even knocked one off.) but applying to grad school took a lot of energy and time but wasn’t half as hard because there you are talking about your own research (and which of us isn’t vain enough to go on for hours about our research?) plus when you write grad school apps no one objects to how you write the essay.
[brief digression: admissions comm chair (after i got in): yes, your application. i have never seen anyone’s application with so much negative energy before.
me: er, is that something like keatsian negative capability?
him: no i mean, you are quite anti-colonial.
me:!!!! but that is exactly what i’m not!!! i do med-ren comparative poetics!
him: post-colonial revisionist medievalists are very fashionable these days….
me: thank you. i think i’ll go with one of my other schools.
but hell’s bells, must i go grovel at doors convincing people that i am a bright, passionate, motivated, [trendy buzzword of choice] individual seeking a challenging, dynamic career with… oh come now!i mean, all i can reasonably offer any employer is the assurance that 1) my research and writing will be sound and that 2) i really do care about the people i represent and 3) people i work with usually find me sympathetic and supportive and 4) what i can’t do yet (there’s plenty) i will try y best to learn to. apart from that i will say also that while singaporeans by default put bilingual (mother tongue-english) on their cvs, their chinese is generally only passable whereas mine actually is good. is that enough? i suspect not. woe is me.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird