Mirror, Mirror?

This article at the Chronicle about discarding the remnants of an academic past in some ways feels terribly familiar. I did finally toss out the myriad revised copies of my dissertation-in-progress before I moved out here (though I've kept the actual primary sources and related notes). I too am struggling to find a place for me either in academia or outside. I find too that adjunct teaching is a false hope for me as well as the author.

If I think too long about it, I feel a sense of forboding -- is this the sort of life I'm looking at? Always wistful, always full of what-ifs? (For all the author speaks of getting rid of old academic baggage, it is hard to make out what she might have found to replace it.)

I hope not!

(On the plus side, it seems like the Chronicle may be trying to address in a serious way, if still rather shallowly, the consequences of a tight academic market and the effects of having dreams both deferred and dead. It's about time.)