On expositions, tears and being well-adjusted

Today I turned in my first paper, which I'm not allowed to call a "paper." It was about Marx, Hegel and Adam Smith. It's a very specific kind of assignment and the profs are calling it an "analytical exposition." Whatever. If it looks like a duck... It was short and pretty excruciating to write. I heard, through the grapevine, that when the grades come out, a few folks are always found outside the program office in tears. Not tears of joy, either, mind you.

Picture it: Big, tough, graduate-student-masters-of-the-universe, in tears.

If there's anything we felt confident about when we got here, it was that we knew how to write. It's a strange sort of intellectual hazing, I think. But somehow, even though I should be flipping out, I feel pretty calm about the whole thing. A few years away from the insular ivory tower has done me a world of good.

There are real problems out there and there are certainly far more important things to stress about. So there you have it. I'm officially well adjusted.

Of course, the real test will be whether I'm found in tears on grade day.