so what do you want to do with your life?

I actually had my undergraduate supervisor ask me something to that effect when I was in my first year of college. We never did really come up with an answer, beyond drinking a lot of Alexander Keith's and seeing which of my circle of friends could make out with the most girls by the end of the semester (I won, but 1. my circle of friends was pretty small, and 2. looking back it doesn't seem like quite the object of pride it once did). History, as we all know, tends to repeat itself, and so it's probably not surprising that I now find myself posing the same question to my own students. Except that unlike the Reverend Doctor Hankey (yes, that's really his name and those were really his titles), I'll limit the scope to the next four months, and endeavor to keep it on a somewhat less philosophical plane. So what am I going to do?

Stop smoking. It's done. See that, everybody?

Start studying Vietnamese again, and push my limits the same way I keep exhorting my students to do.

Meditate. I gotta do it.

Be more present for my students than I was last year. And I don't just mean at Dragonfly on Friday night.

Laugh. A lot.

And this last one might not happen, but I'll put it out there just in case: work one night per week in a bar. So if bar owner wants to hire a bartender with limited skills beyond opening a bottle of beer, but capable of being charming in English, French, and Vietnamese, just let me know. I'll work for peanuts. Literally.