“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” - Attributed to Benjamin Franklin The programmer disagrees. A clever graphic has resurfaced for its round on the internet. It shows that the programmer finds the only productive work by “burning the midnight candle.” Sleeplessness is worn like a badge of honor. But there's a tension in this: rest is an imperative. When we rest and how we rest is a murky question we fumble with all through our lives. The new parent cannot sleep as much as a college … [Read more...] about Sleep and the Graduate Life (Scholar’s Compass)
Feasts and Revelry: Good Food and the Grad Life (Scholar’s Compass)
I visited the Trade Winds Asian Market on a rare summer evening where time slows and places itself like infinity in your hands. I wanted to make green coconut curry before the summer ran out; summer always seems to run out before it has any right to do so. A friend and I drove to the market and wandered the aisles of unfamiliar labels and food types. We pondered the notations in Chinese characters of which green stalks were lemongrass and which was the Thai basil. Some others in the shop helped us make our choices. The … [Read more...] about Feasts and Revelry: Good Food and the Grad Life (Scholar’s Compass)
Movement and the Graduate Life (Scholar’s Compass)
People say the combination of physics Ph.D. student and ballroom is an odd one. They say that it's unusual to find the artist and the scientist in one body. But Robbie Fraleigh manages it without any conflict. He says that he doesn't know how to do grad school without the dancing. … [Read more...] about Movement and the Graduate Life (Scholar’s Compass)
The Samurai Number (Scholar’s Compass)
70-20-10 When you look up this number online, you'll find it associated with a business model and manager structures. But I first heard this ratio from a dancer. Jerome Subey had learned from his Karate Master in the years before he had changed tracks and become a dancer. We were lingering over a late breakfast and I was asking the table how dance had changed their lives. … [Read more...] about The Samurai Number (Scholar’s Compass)
Poetry of Grief (Scholar’s Compass)
It started the day after I stepped off the plane in JFK. Twenty-four hours after my return to my home after twelve months away. It didn't waste anytime. It was Grieving. It surprised me like the black ice on Pennsylvania sidewalks. Step. Slip. Down. I had been with Grief before. We'd held hands, walked the rooms of my childhood home, hidden in towns far away from the damage, cried with our faces turned towards the bedroom wall, cried in public with no warning. This was New. My parents separated my senior … [Read more...] about Poetry of Grief (Scholar’s Compass)