First Night of Grad School, and I Live to Tell the Tale

I confess to being anxious these last few weeks, which seems to make me less communicative. Income and performance are, I think, my greatest anxieties. Most people understand the first, but are a little hazy on the second. Will I live up to expectations? And it doesn't matter whose expectations we're discussing. Everyone's -- anyone's -- expectations are fair game for my anxiety.

So it was with great relief that I found a wonderful group of grad students around the table in Pray-Harrold room 312, for "The Rhetoric of Science and Technology." Yes, they're all younger, slimmer and hipper than I, but they didn't care and, pretty soon, neither did I. I might wear on them as the semester progresses because I have long since lost my inhibitions around people with doctorates and tend to speak my mind. As I like to say, Ph.D.'s are all just like me: they put on their panty hose one leg at a time.

I found that I was just as prepared for class as anyone else. I think my contributions to discussion were on point, like everyone else's, and that maybe I provided a different perspective.

Early on, there was an interesting discussion about the use of "BCE" versus "BC" in technical writing. I thought the instructor belabored the point that, generally, people now use BCE, as in "Before the Common Era." One of my comrades took offense to this, saying that it was wrong because it took christ out of the expression; BCE is an expression that only liberals would use and conservatives would continue to use BC (Before Christ.) There was a little back-and-forth with the prof, who merely wanted to say that BCE is common terminology, and the student who emphasized that what was removed offended him and others of his faith.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is a gauntlet I love to pick up.

I wanted so much to say that although Western Europeans had the guns, germs and steel to conquer most of the world, we've evolved at least a little bit since then -- enough, at least, to know that the world is not Jesus-centric, and that's okay. Even if the birth of Jesus is the demarcation for ancient vs. modern, we don't have to rub cultural noses in it. Really, now -- why should Shintoists have to refer to Jesus?

I tried to give the prof a little help by saying, "I'd love to get in on this discussion but that's probably not how you want to spend the next hour." She agreed, made her stylistic point, and moved on. Whew.

Next class: tomorrow night, Advanced Public Relations Writing, taught by the communications director of the Auto Group -- six AAA clubs with 1.4 million members and 6,100 employees. I think I might learn some practical shizzle.