And then we danced: the bittersweet end of doctoral classes and theeffects on the lovely ladies of cohort 18
Two years ago, on June 10 2010, I met Cohort 18 for the first time. I remember looking dubiously at the 10 faces of the people I would be studying with for the next two years and feeling like I didn't fit in. At least there was Nora. At least we were doing this together; we had already been in school together fir like a zillion years in the reading department at App State and being with her in the doctoral program was like being with one of my old Skool forever best friends from college. I knew I could be me and I would be understood. Not much else has stuck with me from that first encounter at our orientation, with the exception of two things. First, when one of our soon-o-be professors (or maybe it was Jim) said we would go through the program as a cohort an he explained that the cohort model was such a support, I was dubious. I had been in a "cohort" before and it felt no different from not being in a cohort. The second thing that sticks with me from that day was the...