Teaching, mentoring, & learning can be so profoundly bittersweet & idiosyncratic—instructors & students are poised to share & develop different kinds of knowledge in particular moments in their lives, resulting in countless serendipitous breakthroughs & missed opportunities

I often think about where my mentors and I were in our lives when we encountered one another, & how that shaped our work together—what ideas & frameworks I was(n’t) prepared & poised to engage with & what concepts they were(n’t) thinking through in those particular moments

We often imagine that apparent success or failure as a teacher or student reflects fundamental (in)abilities rather than the situated, performative nature of learning—the potential for the same person to appear brilliant or inept depending on how skills are defined & assessed

Reflections on the situated nature of learning inspire me to create space for students to redefine their interests & themselves, start & stop working on ideas, veer off in apparently counter-intuitive directions, read anew & reconceptualize—to revel in & mourn im/possibilities