Saturday, September 13, 2014

Mysterious Meeting

That meeting I mentioned yesterday... I didn't mean to be so mysterious about it, I just needed some time to digest what happened before writing about it.

I was in a coffee shop downtown, standing in line to order when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said my name. I turned around and saw my professor from one of my university courses standing there smiling at me! She had been my prof in a course I wasn't particularly excited about initially, but it turned into my favourite class quickly - she was so good. It was on the history of the book - and covered the relationships between particular books, the texts within them, the cultures that produced them, and the readers who encountered them. It was fascinating. That class was directly responsible for me going into publishing.

Anyway, there she was!  We were only able to chat for a few minutes as she was on her way to meet someone, but she asked the dreaded question of what I was doing for a living. I told her who I had been working for and then feigned total confidence as I went on to tell her my new plan to start a charity that provides cool, non-stigmatizing reading programs for youth. 

We only spoke for ten minutes but she was very supportive of my idea and told me to email her because she has a colleague who is doing collaborative research in early development. Basically she offered up her friend to give her feedback on my program structure!

This is the external motivator I've needed to get on with things - the threat of someone really knowledgeable reviewing it!

In conclusion, when wondering if you should stop for coffee and macaroons, the answer is always yes.

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