Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

It had occurred to me that I was probably stupid for agreeing to do this convocation, when I had real work that needed to be done, and I'd wondered if it was just my vanity that led me to say yes when one of my students asked me to do it. But my colleague's words about the excitement her student had felt reminded me why I want to teach, even when the money's dismal (as it almost always is for adjuncts) -- reminded me what a privilege it is to watch a student's mind begin to click and get fired up.

The diss process is lonely, low return, and often feels utterly aimless. People (who shall remain named my parents and others completely bewildered by the conscious choice of a life in academia) frequently demand to know why I take so much on, why I continue adjuncting for absolutely dismal pay, why I don't just buckle down and finish. I can't explain to most of them that these things give back to me and repay the effort in a way that is utterly absent in the diss process. Some might call it self-indulgent, then, to give them precedence, but I would have chucked this all long ago without exactly what you're describing here.

Christine