I’m a UVA grad, so I have to have a soft spot for Professor William Faulkner. (In Sanctuary, he writes that at the university in Virginia, he “learned to drink like a gentleman”–wahoo-wah!) But it’s been years since he’s been brought up in conversations. Last week, Kristen was visiting. She’s a high school English teacher who thinks often and long about the impact of certain texts on her students. It just felt like a little extra literature and culture was infused in everything we did, from strolling Olde City, to trudging through the local arboretum.
Faulkner was all set to publish the book Twilight, the title of which I believe he had also considered for what is The Sound and the Fury. (Apparently, that time of day fascinated Faulkner, as it was a moment of tension as light slips into darkness.) But one evening, he was sitting on the porch with his beloved Estelle, and she said casually, “Don’t you just love the light in August?” Stop the presses.
I thought about this supposed interaction several times in the last week, as the sticky purple August evenings hang over us. I think we’ve gotten to appreciate this month so much more than most years, as taking a break from school and having an infant slows down the pace of things.
I’m a part-time student of bioethics this semester, and my first class is tonight. John caught himself ask me, “So, am I babysitting–uh! Parenting?” My love, my considerate as hell, progressive partner…we’re fighting the slowly changing societal norms.
Pictures from the last week:
anna in med school 
Yay for UVA! I too am an alum. Found your blog after searching “having a baby in graduate school?”. Guess the answer for you is yes! Hah.
Wahoo!!! Awesome! Thanks for checking this blog out 🙂 Are you thinking the same? It’s been good so far!
Debating the timeline right now. I’m in a masters program for counseling which isn’t nearly as intense as med school but still has things like internship year and residency. I’ve been think it would probably be better to have a kid before that mess starts rather than waiting until who knows when. Plus I can practice all my counseling skills on my future toddler!
Ha! Well, considering I’m using my almost 11-month-old to finally learn the developmental milestones, I’m all about using our children in our practice for our career 😉 And I can’t say that med school is more or less intense, especially if you take the long way through like what I’m doing. Good luck with the decision!
My brother went to UVa. He graduated in ’72, I think it was. When I was applying to colleges in 1973, it was nowhere near as good as it is now; it was my safety school. What a change!
But who cares? The point is that you gave us more pix of the adorable Aurelia. Yay! Love that girl! She’s so interested in her world, and she’s so darned cute with her chunky little limbs!
I love the chunk!
That’s so cool that you applied I think the first year UVA admitted women! (Or maybe 1973 was the first graduating class?) Apparently it was an old legacy club, but then the admission of women made it more competitive…or so I hear 🙂
I don’t remember when UVa first admitted women, either. And actually I didn’t apply. I got into my first choice early decision, so I never bothered to apply to my other two choices—them were the good old days, when one didn’t apply to a bazillion different schools. I’m just remembering that it was my safety and marveling how things have changed. William and Mary used to be way, way more competitive than UVa, and now it’s at about the same level of competitiveness, isn’t it?
Ha! I only applied to 5 schools–not terrible 🙂 Though I knew I wanted to go to UVA, I just wanted to feel like I had made a conscious choice to go to UVA. The instate tuition and scholarships cannot be beat! Just my opinion, but I think UVA and W&M are a great bang for the buck, unless you get a crazy deal elsewhere. As John and I have crazy med school loans, it’s so nice to not have any from undergrad. I even got a Masters at UVA for less than 5k. Can you tell I’m ridiculously and annoyingly proud of my school? Let me know when it gets repulsive 🙂
Two beautiful women, actually three.
Life has changed. It is really hard to take the time needed for Faulkner.
Awww…couldn’t agree more, to both comments! Love you, Dad!
Absolutely, UVa and W&M are terrific deals. My son-in-law went to W&M Law, and I already mentioned my brother, so I have a soft spot for those schools. Timmy went to VA Tech, Patrick and his wife went to Radford, I got my master’s at Mason (it was convenient and relatively cheap), and I live just north of JMU, and all that makes me fond of those schools, too. I have various relatives who have gone to other VA state schools. There are a lot of good reasons to go to VA schools even if one comes from out of state.
My husband, Meg, Rosie, and I got our bachelor’s degrees at private schools out of state—Wesleyan, Georgetown (my husband has a BA and a BSN), Notre Dame, Northwestern, and Oberlin. All good schools, but awfully expensive and getting more so, of course.