Here’s a proposed title for my memoir, inspired by me being aggressively helped at a friend via text: TELLING FRIENDS THINGS I NEED TO HEAR: THE KIMBERLY HIRSH STORY

You know that thing where you’ve pursued something long enough that now you’ve pretty much been exposed to all the fundamentals of it, and instead of looking to someone else’s system should probably Frankenstein your own? That’s where I am with personal productivity systems.

Debating with myself about regalia since I’m not going to an in-person ceremony. Definitely not trying to get the fancy stuff I dreamed of 10 yrs ago, but thinking maybe I’ll get a new hood & tassel + a souvenir tam. One hopes to only get a PhD one time, you know?

“The academy is not designed to accommodate women, families, or the demands of modern life… Settling for mediocrity in everything but academic work is an insufficient solution to juggling work and family life.” - Dr. Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, Succeeding Outside the Academy 💬📚

“[The graduate program] hinges on a level of detachment from the corporeal, on a laser focus and dedication to one’s intellectual development.” - Dr. Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, Succeeding Outside the Academy 💬📚

“Lives matter more than careers. Focus on building the life you want rather than pursuing the career that people think you should have.” - Dr. Kelly J. Baker in Succeeding Outside the Academy 💬📚

Finished reading: The Freelance Academic by Katie Rose Guest Pryal 📚

🔖 What are we folding when we are folding laundry in quarantine is a beautiful poem by Sarah Ruhl. Probably time for me to pick up my copy of 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write and keep reading it.

🔖 I love this take. I’d love to see it even more fleshed out: WandaVision Is Basically a Retelling of the Scarlet Letter (LitHub) 📺

Apparently it’s going to be an up-every-two-hours kind of night.