Three Sentences

Pilgrim/Heretic recently attended a recognition ceremony at her campus, and was struck by how little the dedications ended up saying about the people who'd been working there for twenty or thirty years.  So she posed the question:  In three sentences or fewer, how would you like your work and yourself to be described in a similar situation?

I'm very intrigued by the question, but more than a little daunted when it comes to thinking up an answer.  For one thing, I don't really have a career at this point.  So I have to think about might-bes in more than one way.  But here's one attempt:

During the last 30 years, R has written numerous articles and books, many of them exploring the themes of home and our connections to the non-human world. Despite her success as a writer, what we wish to celebrate most today is her success as a human being and as a friend.

I guess that's only two.  But there's only so much head-swelling I can manage in one day.  (I can't tell whether this is a crisis of confidence, or a lack of imagination.)  I'd like to think that 30 years from now I will be a warm and humane person, with a good sense of humor, lots of stories to tell, and a number of intriguing adventures and quiet satisfactions to look back on and forward to.  But that's more about me and less about my "career."  I want to be published, and I want people to read my work, and I want approval.  (I've given up on the idea that I could change the world.)  But that's pretty vague - which is why I'm sceptical about my ability to turn those speculative sentences into reality. 

Still, it'd be something, if I managed it, wouldn't it?

Comments

[Pilgrim/Heretic]

Ooo, I like that. Interestingly where I get stuck is listing my professional accomplishments... I watched an old episode of the Wonder Years last night, in which Kevin and his class are given the assignment to write their own obituaries (projecting their lives into the future, of course). I find that a much easier task; I'm more aware of what I want to accomplish as a human being than I am as a historian.

[David]

"I want to be published?" What is wrong with the fools?

[Rana]

Not so much a problem with "them" as with me. Some people have writer's block; I have query letter block.