A couple days ago I got an email from my former thesis advisor, inviting all of us from his 2005 seminar to a little get together he was having with his 2006 class. I already had dinner plans with people but I figured I'd stop by for a little while beforehand.
I ended up having more fun there than I did with my friends. I was the only person from the 2005 group to show up, but I knew a couple of people who were in this year's class, and I think my advisor was happy to have someone there who has graduated and is able to attest to the fact that being shot out into the real world isn't AS sucky as it seems (although it does still suck, no question). I forgot how awesome my advisor is -- I haven't had any correspondence with him since last spring, when he emailed me to tell me that "Chaiyya Chaiyya" was used at the beginning of Spike Lee's Inside Man. (For those of you who weren't around pre-graduation, I wrote my thesis on Mani Ratnam's Dil Se in comparison to his earlier Tamil films, as well as to mainstream Hindi cinema in the 1990s.)
I also discovered that at the beginning of this year's seminar, he sent out MY THESIS as an example of what the class should be doing with their papers. He introduced me with the phrase "This is Roopa -- I sent you guys HER paper" (to which I responded "Wait, WHAT?!"). It's incredibly flattering but it was mildly embarrassing at the same time -- knowing that the bulk of my paper was whipped out over 48 hours at my great-aunt's computer in Chennai, I have to wonder whether it's really appropriate for 1/3 of this year's film studies graduates to have read my paper as a model of what they should be aspiring to. As I was leaving my advisor told me that all of his students wrote 50 page papers in an effort to "try to be as good as Roopa" (even though my paper was only 35 pages, maybe 50 with photo inserts attached). If I could turn red, I would have. There have been very few teachers who have been 100% behind me and my abilities, but he and my playwriting teacher from high school are the first two who immediately jump to mind.
I told him that writing my paper was really one of the most enjoyable experiences I had in my undergraduate career, and as I left the restaurant I realized that I wholeheartedly meant it. THAT'S the kind of passion I want to have about what I do for a living -- something that excites me so much to the point where it doesn't even feel like work anymore. I talked a lot about my career goals last night, and I'm happy to say that now, I am well on my way to acheiving what I think, at this point, I want to do with the rest of my life.
I ended up having more fun there than I did with my friends. I was the only person from the 2005 group to show up, but I knew a couple of people who were in this year's class, and I think my advisor was happy to have someone there who has graduated and is able to attest to the fact that being shot out into the real world isn't AS sucky as it seems (although it does still suck, no question). I forgot how awesome my advisor is -- I haven't had any correspondence with him since last spring, when he emailed me to tell me that "Chaiyya Chaiyya" was used at the beginning of Spike Lee's Inside Man. (For those of you who weren't around pre-graduation, I wrote my thesis on Mani Ratnam's Dil Se in comparison to his earlier Tamil films, as well as to mainstream Hindi cinema in the 1990s.)
I also discovered that at the beginning of this year's seminar, he sent out MY THESIS as an example of what the class should be doing with their papers. He introduced me with the phrase "This is Roopa -- I sent you guys HER paper" (to which I responded "Wait, WHAT?!"). It's incredibly flattering but it was mildly embarrassing at the same time -- knowing that the bulk of my paper was whipped out over 48 hours at my great-aunt's computer in Chennai, I have to wonder whether it's really appropriate for 1/3 of this year's film studies graduates to have read my paper as a model of what they should be aspiring to. As I was leaving my advisor told me that all of his students wrote 50 page papers in an effort to "try to be as good as Roopa" (even though my paper was only 35 pages, maybe 50 with photo inserts attached). If I could turn red, I would have. There have been very few teachers who have been 100% behind me and my abilities, but he and my playwriting teacher from high school are the first two who immediately jump to mind.
I told him that writing my paper was really one of the most enjoyable experiences I had in my undergraduate career, and as I left the restaurant I realized that I wholeheartedly meant it. THAT'S the kind of passion I want to have about what I do for a living -- something that excites me so much to the point where it doesn't even feel like work anymore. I talked a lot about my career goals last night, and I'm happy to say that now, I am well on my way to acheiving what I think, at this point, I want to do with the rest of my life.
7 comments | Leave a comment
jetlagged.