Sunday, October 22, 2006

GOOAAALLLL!!!!




I reached a professional milestone on Friday. I gave my first academic paper at a conference.

It's difficult to accurately convey the depth of my anxiety prior to delivering this paper. At best, I was hoping to get through the delivery without vomiting on my myself. At worst...well...it really wouldn't have taken much more than the vague look of disappointment in the eyes of my profs to send my packing back to Chi-town.

But it went well. Amazingly well. I can actually write and deliver a paper with a degree of confidence ands style. Perfect it wasn't but no glaring flaws, and alot of compliments from professors not previously familiar with my work.

The other papers were good too, one on Raleigh's navigational texts which was a nice compliment to my own slave ship theme. And another on automatons in the 18th Century. One additional presenter had a death in her family and did not present, which was a bit awkward for the facult respondents. But it was a nice time. No deer in headlights moments.


So, the professionalization process is in full swing. Next up: term paper topics. Fuck!