Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

16 Nov 2001, 22:21 p.m.

Thanks to Jeana, I attended a lecture by Ursula K.…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Thanks to Jeana, I attended a lecture by Ursula K. Le Guin today and even spoke with her a tiny bit. She seemed very happy that I'd had such a great experience teaching her book. I gave her a flier that I'd used to advertise my class and that mentioned her book.

During the lecture, I thought about how very, very smart and skillful Le Guin is as a lecturer and a writer, and I grew depressed because I don't know whether I will ever be as good and successful. After the lecture, a man struck up a conversation with me based on a question I'd asked during the Q&A period. He basically told me that I seem to have teaching in my blood, and that someone who teaches even when she's not getting paid is someone who will be a successful teacher.

I can be pretty mystical sometimes. Perhaps today I heard my calling.