Questions? Comments?

[stoutfellow]

Stolen from several friends:

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other.

I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[allyra.livejournal.com]

What made you decide to go into teaching?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

The short answer is that, though there are plenty of careers available to mathematicians, the default (so to speak) is academe; and I had pretty much made up my mind to be a mathematician as early as eighth grade. (There were a couple of intervals during which I considered something else, but they were brief.) But that's not exactly a matter of deciding to go into teaching.

The real answer follows. It may or may not make sense to you, depending on your world view (and on my ability to tell the story coherently); but this is what happened, as I experienced it.

I can pinpoint the moment when I committed myself (psychologically) to the idea. When I was in graduate school at the University of Chicago, I was heavily involved in the Ministry Group at the Catholic student center. We held weekly meetings to discuss the business of the center and to study various aspects of Catholic formation. At one such meeting, we were discussing the concept of vocation - a divine calling to a particular life - and I had what I can only describe as an epiphany. All of a sudden, a bunch of seemingly unconnected bits of my life - a chance comment by a neighborhood kid many years earlier, a course I had taken in high school when I was considering a different career, a prayer I had been making repeatedly over the previous few years, a dozen or more other items - suddenly rearranged themselves into a coherent whole, all pointing towards my vocation, as a teacher. My life - past, present, and hoped-for future - made sense, in a way it never had before.

Epiphanies don't last, of course; but the memory of the clarity of that moment of calling has stuck with me. It doesn't mean that I enjoy teaching more than, say, research; nor does it mean that I'm necessarily good at it. It does mean that it's vitally important to me that I do this, and that I do as good a job as I can.

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

The Horned Hopper is going to stand by her attempts to refrain from asking *really* personal questions that are none of her business this time. I'm proud of myself (g).

How did you find the Vorkosiverse and what led you to the Bujold List?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I first heard of LMB on the old SciFi Forum on CompuServe. Her works were much discussed, and with such enthusiasm that I copied down a list of the novels. I didn't do anything with it, though, until Barrayar was serialized in Analog. I was hooked. I went out and bought everything of hers that I could find. (I'm still more a fan of Cordelia and, to a lesser extent, Aral than I am of Miles, entertaining though he is.)

Some time later, on a whim, I Googled on "Vorkosigan"; some of the hits were in the old archives. I read a few passages, decided that these sounded like interesting people, hunted around for instructions, and joined up.