I am at least one, and maybe all, of the following:
somewhere between 25 and 30 years old; a graduate student in linguistics at a university that is closer to New York than California; a sometimes clueless research assistant; a night owl without the aid of caffeine; a harsh grader who would, one day far from now, strike fear in the hearts of her students if only she didn’t act like such a flaming moron; that fiercely loyal but absent-minded type of friend who remembers a birthday but forgets to mail a card; a child born in a working-class, urban neighborhood, and also the first child in my family to complete a college education, let alone go on to grad school; a long-distance girlfriend of an academic; a hungry student who has a deadline.

 

Do I sound like I could be you? You’re probably at the right blog, then.