Me, my goals, my purposes

I am late to blogging, and given the cacophony of blogged voices out there on the internet, a positive symphony of monologers, I don't expect this one will gain any following or receive much attention. It's the way I want it. I suppose this is a semi-public place to air my secrets, a forum to express my thoughts, and an audience might be more counterproductive than useful.

What do I tell my invisible and non-existant audience about myself? I'm not particularly special. I can write, and express myself well, though many people think my written style is formal, distant, stuffy, even stuck up. I've been accused of elitism because I write correct grammar, though doing so has become more of an ingrained habit than an attempt to impress.

I am also, as the title of the blog indicates, an academic. A lifelong academic. Christ, I've been in school forever, constantly training for that long-postponed day when I'll stand before the assembly and receive my hood. I'm not there yet. I work in the least popular, least understood, and for many, the least interesting area of European history -- the Medieval period. That great expanse of 1000 years, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance when, as priests and professors have told me, nothing of any particular interest happened.

Of course, it did. A lot of it. And I study part of it. I work on French 14th century history -- the specifics can wait for another post -- and research means I have to find ways to travel to Paris and work in the archives. I do. I have. It's a perk of working in this field, although money is always an issue.

But as I get older, I look back on my life and wonder how I got here. My 20 year old self would laugh and sneer at the 40 something me, that is if she could focus on me through the haze of alcohol and pot, if not other substances. Nostalgia isn't my thing, but maybe this blog is what I need to go back and think about where I've been so I can see where I want to be.

When I grow up.