moving beyond katie

for a lot of my life, i was known as katie, a fact that mike loves to revisit whenever he's trying to get me fired up. then, sometime in college, i became kate. however, not everyone in my life got the memo about that. my family, of course, is allowed to call me katie, and i'll even cut my high school friends some slack. beyond that though, it's just plain weird when i'm called something other than kate. i bring this up because today as i was going to convocation with my fellow faculty members to welcome the new students, a professor from my glory days called me katie. it's possible that he missed the memo my junior year that i had self-imposed a different moniker, but it made me wonder if he still saw me as i used to be.

that's been on my mind a lot this week as i re-enter this college. last time i was here, i had just graduated and was scared to leave the place that had been like home for four years. i was, i'm sure, worried about what the future held once i moved beyond this place. and now, i'm back in a completely new role. as i sat in my master's degree garb (cap, gown, fancy hood, the whole deal) during convocation, i realized that i'm not katie anymore. but instead, i'm kate...new faculty member, grown-up, adult, professor (well almost.) it's a little weird, but every exciting at the same time. and i hope this community will accept me as this new person. i know, i'm not completely different than when i was an undergrad, but much has changed at the same time. i hope there will be space for who i have become in the last 9 years (the new kate) and for what i will become in my time here. i've moved beyond katie. :) if that makes any kind of sense.