BP6: Nial "The Wild Turkey" DeMena

Depends on my mood: There are days when I'm working on my annotated bibliography and feel like an independent scholar, then there are other times when I'm sitting in my office doing schoolwork like a dumb student, and even times when I try to ask around like I'm collaborating. I don't find it necessary, except when asked, to define the various Nials because as I know, a Nial divided against itself cannot stand. The many shades of academic Nial--pissed off at his busy-work Nial, proud private tutor Nial, scholarly Nial, creative Nial--have to work together seamlessly in order to get to the PhD,  job, then tenure future-Nial.


As of writing my post, I am somewhere between scholar, student, and professor. I'm working on a seminar paper (scholar) while I fulfill my requirements (student), and I will go back to and finish my four major assignments for pedagogy tomorrow (professor). Nevertheless, I prefer independent scholar Nial because he isn't and can't be hampered by administrative work, busy work, or teacherly concerns. He is just focused on his ideas which, despite what everyone tells him, he still believes is his sole, driving reason for coming back to school. 

Just like Robert, I know my future success / career is contingent upon scholarship and teaching. But there is also a curious side of me, like Quinn admits to, that believes in the ghost of smells as a phenomenon. 

My boy Jim Leigh, trailer-park supervisor Sunnyville, will take me out: