University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

The Awakening by Kate Chopin has influenced my world-view twice. As a college student, I identified as an aspiring scientist and as a young woman who would “have it all” in a way that women from my mother’s generation and before largely hadn’t. I discovered the feminist novel The Awakening and considered it a favorite for years. I admired the protagonist’s fight to define herself without regard to societal gender expectations, and I even deemed the outcome heroic because she refused to be repressed. The book enhanced my passion to strive for my goals. Now I have been promoted to full professor. I am a woman, a scientist, a scholar, a teacher, a department head, a mother, a wife, often a role model and more. I reread The Awakening recently. Given the importance of this book to my younger self, I was surprised at this stage in my life to have a distinctly less positive response to Edna and a more tragic view of the outcome. However, in comparing my striving for my own identity and success with her striving to be herself, the book has made me better appreciate that I have experienced much opportunity and am fortunate to have combined it with personal determination to land me where I am quite happy and fortunate to be.