📚 A Graduation Gift (to Myself)

For those of you who know me, you'll know that Catch-22 was the book that really solidified, for me, that I wanted to be a scholar. I'd known for years I wanted to be a professor, as early as high school, but that always meant teaching, in my mind. Catch-22 made me realize that I didn't just love reading or talking about it--but I wanted to write about it, I wanted to explore it, to critique and understand it on a deeper level and to share my insights with others. So when I stumbled into a small bookshop in Boston, my fiancee tagging along, and we walked three stories up to the "rare books" section, imagine my surprise when I see a Franklin Library edition of Catch-22 signed by Heller in perfect condition. I asked how much it was and decided I couldn't afford to buy it, despite how much I wanted it. My fiancee talked me into it as we were leaving the shop, however: she told me I never celebrated my successful defense, I didn't really do anything for my graduation, nor did I celebrate getting my TT Assistant Professor job. I'm now sitting at the airport, writing this post, excited as ever to be going home with a signed copy of my favorite book--by the author who taught me that I could be a scholar, that being a professor was in my future. I wish there were some way he could know that I got here. I did it. And I've got the book to prove it to myself.