Sunday, April 22, 2001

Voodoo Chops it Up for a Crowd

Today I had two presentations to do. One to a group of about 250 parents of expectant USF parents. Another one to a group of students who are just about to start their doctoral studies.

I wound up having to work on a Saturday because my boss has to work on Saturdays, so I get to stand in for him. It's an easy gig, talk a little about the Center, what we do, blah blah blah. I wind up waiting until LAST to talk (dammit), and boy, I tell you...the other departments before me, Residence Life, Public Safety, etc. Wind up going before me. Hello, I'm at a University. Students GO here to STUDY. So I should get to go first, but NO. Fuckers. I wait more than an hour to talk. I get my chance to talk, then I drop the mic. Did I mention I have almost no voice? My cold has taken what little voice I have left. I sound like that wheezy guy on the Godfather. SO I drop the mic, and my first words, "Okay folks, it's been that kind of day..." hahahha Nice, huh. I get onto my speech, and it goes well, then I realize, hey, I'm rambling. Oh goodness. When I speak in public, which happens to be a LOT, I have to find ways to talk to parents or students, or whoever will listen to me, relate to them and have them leave with a positive impression. Dropping the mic, rambling and having a little kid run up the center isle to me then me saying, "Why hello, Frank" to him is not exactly the positive image I wanted to leave, but I did have a lot of parents talk to me. Most of them happened to be Filipino. Cute huh. Yah, you tell your son to talk to me.

Anyways, later that day, I had to talk to some graduate students. I'm about at the dead end of my graduate career. I was asked to talk to some students about what the process was like, and what it entailed, what kind of blood did I have to spill, and what kind of struggles I had. Mind you, I had a LOT of shit to deal with. It was difficult and it was bloody. It was easy and it was cake. I was driven to go to the library. I stayed up late. I did most of it without being strung out on coffee. I was there with two other classmates and we talked to about 15 of our peers. It's funny because you don't really realize that you've done all that work and accumulated all that knowledge until you have to talk about it. It's been tough, but I loved it. I wish that for you all, Voodoo Children. To experience success and be able to pass it on to others. What have you done for them lately?

So, enough for tonight. It's late, I'm out of it, and I have no voice.

But I tell you. The other day, I had a committee co-chair come up to me and show me a document that had my information on it. She asked me, "Is this right?" and held it up for me to see. It said
"Dr. Voodoo Child" (you know what I mean, come on now). I freaked out. And then I realized that it really hadn't hit me yet. But DAYAM.

I gun be a duktur! DEEEEEEEEEEYAM

Voodoo

posted by Voodoo Child @ 1:33:00 AM