(no subject)

So I've been more than a bit stressed lately about the impending interview, possible move, etc., and doing a lot of the hand-to-forehead "Oh my life is so complex" thing lately. And then today I get an e-mail from one of my advisees--an extraordinarily bright young man, double neuroscience/philosophy major, who's also in the military--saying his unit's being deployed, leaving Monday, and he needs to be withdrawn from all his classes. And all of a sudden my own small anxieties resume their proper significance in the grand scheme of things, which is to say negligible.

I haven't had anyone I know personally sent into combat since Vietnam. I'm still wanly hoping it doesn't come to that, again, but such hopes seem foolish at this point. I don't really know what unit this guy is in, so I can't track what's happening with him, but I'll be thinking of him, and wondering. He was preparing to apply to medical school. Did I mention extraordinarily bright? And twenty years old--everything still in front of him.

So, anyway. Less bitching about trivia from me, at least for a while.

(Sekrit message to those who've been subjected to my personal-life dramatics--situation is much improved. Whew. Sorry about the meltdown.)