If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm incredibly superstitious. I never thought of myself this way until I taught a German course that centered around a book and movie called Im Juli. The story is full of superstitions and it became a reoccuring conversational theme in the course. I taught the course 6 times and it didn't take long to realize that I was much more willing to believe superstitions than my students. My feeling is that it can't hurt to try to work things into my favor with good luck charms and I can't afford any bad luck, despite the voodoo doll on our fridge that Hubby's aunt gave us on Easter.
And what does this have to do with bubble bath? Let me explain. I had a very miserable year in 2009. I dropped out of graduate school, turned down a fellowship, called off my wedding to Hubby with 4 days to go, taught middle school and managed to become the 6th grade wing's scape goat. (I wouldn't be surprised if some of those teachers have voodoo dolls in my honor) Although the year was enough to show me that I really did want to be an academic and not a German teacher, I was very unhappy. Thankfully, I had good friends by my side that year who tolerated my poor spirits and hung out with me despite my perpetual bad mood. One of those friends gave me her bottle of lucky bubble bath made with four leaf clovers. I used the bubble bath until my department chair at the university reinstated my funding and welcomed me back into the department with open arms. It seems that the bubble bath also helped my relationship with Hubby, since we got married after all. With all of this good fortune, I have been hoarding the last drops of bubble bath for special intentions. I started using it again for said special intentions this month and exausted it last night.
Lo and behold, I received an e-mail this morning from the library sub committee that I am a finalist for the library doctoral fellowship! Woohoo!!! Apparently, those librarians either haven't read my blog or think my criticism of the library shows my dedication to research in the library. Their judgement must be clouded by the four leaf clover bubbles wafting out of my bath tub. The e-mail informed me that I have been selected for an interview with the sub committee which will take place on May 7th. There are 9 interview time slots open, which means that I still have to beat out 7 other students to receive the award (and no, I will not start using the voodoo doll now).
To prepare for my interview, I have started an intense background investigation of the award. So far, I have learned that two students receive the award each year. The former award recipients come from all sorts of doctoral programs and have a wide range of publications. Each year the number of applications for the award increase. In 2009 there were 42 applicants, 54 in 2010 and 74 in 2011. I figure I beat out at least 50 other highly qualified dissertators to make it this far, but now I have to plot my next moves carefully. I think Geraldine stands out because her database is made up of resources from the library: electronic documents, microfilms, grammars and dictionaries that no one else ever checked out of the library, journals, interlibrary loan materials, etc. I've traveled to other libraries to expand Geraldine's database, and I have a competitive CV. Now I just need to pull out the extra Kelsie charm to prove to the sub committee that I am the best candidate for their $5,000 award-- without the help of anymore magic bubble bath.
So, what else has helped me win awards? Here are a few highlights. In high school I made it to the national automotive competition. I had to beat my best friend at the state level. We were neck in neck all through the regional competitions. She received comments from the judges that she sparkled. When my auto shop teacher read the comments, he scoled me and asked me why I didn't smarkle (yes, smarkle, he said it wrong). I learned to smarkle before the state competition and will work on my smarkling skills this week as I prepare for my interview. My sophomore year of college I won a place on the all-state academic team. The monetary amount of the award wasn't much, but I received a lot of publicity and the college president said "Hello Kelsie" every time he saw me on campus. Lesson learned: it pays to be likeable. Maybe I should send anonymous cookies to the sub committee members. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out who they are yet or I would sit in on their classes this week to figure out their preferences. My senior year of college I won the department foreign language award. Besides my obvious language skills, I attribute this to being the only student who never skipped class. Again, it pays to suck up, but that won't work for me this time. Last year I received a Foreign Language Areas Studies fellowship, which allowed me to study a Turkic language. I attribute this award to knowing the right people at the right time. Again, this won't help me with the library award.
My scholarly activities and explanation of how the library plays a role in Geraldine's creation helped me get this far. Now I need to use my familiarity with the library and patron record to show that I am not only the best qualified applicant but that I also use the library better than any other dissertator. Good thing I needed to enter all of my citations into a bibliographic computer program this week. What better way that than to review how I've used the library this semester? And, if that's not enough, maybe I'll just bring my bunny with me to the interview. If four lucky rabbit feet don't do the trick, maybe the cute bunny will win me some extra points....
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