One Mamá’s Dispensable Myths and Indispensable Machines
August 31st, 2009In her essay, Angelica Duran writes about the machines that get her, a single mother of two, through her graduate program: the computer on which she wrote; the bicycle which carried her, her books, and sometimes her kids from home to school and back again; the movable library shelves, where her young son quickly learned his letters and numbers, so eager was he to key in the combination that would set the shelves in motion. We’ll never forget the image of her daughter writing encouraging notes – “’Good job, mom!’ or ‘Just 8 more days until you turn in your dissertation’ – and paper-airplaning those ‘love notes’ down the staircase to [her mom].”
Angelica now writes, “Since the book came out, young Jacqueline and Paul have made major steps. Jacqueline is now a freshman at Purdue, majoring in English Education, minoring in Spanish, playing tuba in the (fantastic) Purdue All-American Marching Band, and living in the dorms. Paul is a high school freshman, whose growth spurt leaves me the shortest member of our nuclear family. He takes after his stepfather and me in loving international travel: just last year he traveled with some junior high folk to Italy over spring break for a week, and with his best friend’s family to South Korea for about a month. An Associate Professor, I accepted the nomination to become the Director of Religious Studies. In November, I will be talking about being a Mama, Ph.D. during recent years at the annual National Women’s Studies Conference in Georgia. Husband Sean is busily remodeling our new home — we (environmentally-responsibly) downsized upon Jacqueline’s graduation. It’s actually an older home on our same block. We love our neighbors. We are loving life.”
It’s good to hear things are going so well for this Mamá, PhD!
Join us on Facebook