My Ohio University work inbox has been unusually full today, mostly due to an impending visit from the president of the United States. According to emails, the building where I normally teach freshman composition will have Secret Service men on every floor while the president speaks on the college green. The library where I tutor will be flanked by police, and bystanders will go through airport-like security. Army helicopters have been flying over the vibrant fall tree line in tight formation, so low to the ground that, one mile from campus, the walls of my house tremble.
On a daily basis, I walk through the oldest cemetery in Athens, Ohio. Not only a shortcut to work, this route asks me to ruminate on questions like, “What am I doing with my life?,” “What will really matter a year from now?,” and “Who do I want to be?”
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