The Beauty of the "I."

Thinking back on my first three semesters of working here in the writing center, a number of conferences stand out in my memory. I had a number of series of conferences with fascinating individuals last year, many of whom became friends of mine because of the experiences. But among the conferences that weren't series with the same few people, I remember with the most interest the conferences with other writing center consultants.

The most recent of these has just finished, as a matter of fact, in which I had the opportunity to conference over a term paper for an independent study with a fellow writing centaur. It wasn't the most exciting conference ever, and it probably won't be the one that I remember for the proverbial movie montage of me working here during my time at Coe, but something about this conference, something about the relaxed, calm demeanor as we talked through her paper, strikes me as a little bit profound.

Upon a little bit of quiet reflection as I finish out my two hour block shift, it comes to me. It isn't anything that I did, it isn't anything she did, per se. The striking, profound happenstance of this conference is that we both go into this one knowing more or less what we should expect. She mentioned to me afterward about how she had wanted to work with me on this because she thought I could be blunt enough for her to hear what she needed to hear and get down to business on the paper.

That, friends, is the beauty of the incestuous writing center conference.

-Ben B. '13