Impact

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 Guilty. 

Like many others this June, I attended a university convocation but (for the first time), as faculty.

 What a pleasure. Joyful, even. Also cringe—most public ceremonies are inherently (although not cynically) performative. And also this: humbling. Nothing makes  a guy feel more dense than being surrounded by incredibly smart people. But (like me) if your safe space has always been at school, so so so worth the lingering imposter syndrome. 

After their tassels were moved from the right to the left and their bachelors' degrees official, one of the PhDs said something like this to those graduates: "you've just joined a community; welcome, and for those who might perceive it as an exclusive group, let's clear that up. Like all of the faculty on stage, whatever their degrees, you just became a life-long problem-solver with one overarching goal: better the world. As someone whose safe space is learning more, I heard that. 

Dear friends, PhD or not, get out there in the world and get busy—enhance, advance, uplift.