Now that there is a chill in the air and it actually feels like fall, I can take a look back on what was I called the “Summer of KDC.” A summer of change and transformation. I guess it was, but not in ways that I expected. I was really hoping to make the summer a year where I finally leveled up into the life i want but in many cases, I think I just ended up learning that the only way I am going to get the life I want is by actually going full on for it myself.
My gig at JSTOR Daily ended, and that sucked for me, because I really liked it, but at the same time, JSTOR siphoned a lot of time and energy away from both my teaching and from The Learned Fangirl, so losing gave me both of those things back. My eye problems are still problems but in dealing with that, I am learning to ruthlessly prioritize the people and things that really mean the most to me as opposed to wasting time doing stuff I don’t want to do with people I don’t want to be around.
I now measure things that I want to do around the question “do i want to use my eyesight for this?” and it’s very helpful. I got to do a lot of things that were worth my eyesight this summer: going to NOLA, and Montreal, seeing Faith No More three times. THREE TIMES. Having great monthly brunches for my friends at home. That all means a lot.
Rather than it being a summer of excess, it felt more like a summer of cutting back, where I really started to look at what I do and don’t want to do and trying to own it as much as possible. I guess that’s getting older.
Keidra Chaney 