Our privilege was planted on stolen land and seized by Straight Takeover turned sacred spaces for commemoration. Curriculum revealed to us coded languages that we will carry back to our communities. Nasties was our nesting place, and the North Star gave us direction. Preliminary examinations pushed us to our peak, even though we had them like every other week. We danced until the dawn then studied until dusk. Released frustration over tweets and beats. We've created oaken shields of safe spaces and sorrowful moments. Let your presence be the mirror that reflects righteousness. Let your voice be the sword that protects. Let your actions speak volumes that books cannot contain. From the analyst to the actor, the future doctors to the diplomats, the engineers to the athletes, tell your story wherever you go. Farewell to the hill, look how far we've come. The pen is ready, now what truth shall we speak? History is ours. LAURENCE MINTER: Silence swells the souls of our speech. JUSTIN SIMMS: Congratulations again to the class of 2021, and. PAULINA KENNY: And our featured speaker, the amazing Roxane Gay. JUSTIN SIMMS: We have a great group of speakers for you all today, including a student poet, remarks from President Pollack and VP Lombardi.
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That’s really nice too.PAULINA KENNY: Welcome to the 2021 convocation ceremony. When I’m on a tighter budget, I like to do like custom stationery. I will not take it personally if you do not like this. It’s more personal than a gift certificate, and I always make it clear: Do not feel wedded to this. If you send it with a gift receipt, if the person doesn’t like what you’ve selected, they can exchange it for a scarf that they do like. This is going to sound really bougie, but Hermès scarves. I will just allow myself to shut down and do something enjoyable. On a great day, I allow myself to just not open my laptop when I’m done working. Sometimes you learn those lessons the hard way, and it’s okay. I decided to leave, even though it was terrifying and remains terrifying to not have a day job. It’s not that I thought I was that great, but I certainly knew that I brought a lot to the job and that I enjoyed it. I realized they were never going to see my worth, even if every other institution did. When I brought it to their attention and showed them the comps of my peers with fewer books at other institutions, they came back with a raise that was ridiculous. I was drastically underpaid and not by a little bit.
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That certainly happened when I left Purdue. Sometimes an employer will simply refuse to pay you what you’re worth, and then you have to make the difficult decision. And if you can’t, that’s totally fine, but you will not be working with me. If you can pay it, we’ll make wonderful work together. You may not always get the answer you want, but we don’t ask for what we deserve-or the better word might be what we merit, what we’ve earned. And then I will find out what white writers are paid or what men are paid, and I’m like, “Wow.” I think it’s good advice for women. I will negotiate a contract of some kind. I love to think I’m a very good negotiator. If people don’t respond to my work the way I had hoped and I recognize that I have to sort of do better, I just allow myself to feel what I need to feel about it. I allow myself to feel what I need to feel when I’m rejected or when I don’t get an accolade that I very much want. I was a dishwasher in the high school dining hall. I thought that it would be great to help people. I wasn't allowed to watch medical dramas on television, but I would see glimpses and it seemed exotic and exciting. I wanted to be an emergency room physician. Glamour sat down with Roxane Gay over Zoom to ask her advice on-what else?-work, of course, but also her home office must-haves, her go-to gifts, and the best Instagram follows. The class is billed as a chance to help subscribers have hard conversations about social issues, own their own identities, and navigate writing about trauma. Last month MasterClass announced that she would teach a course on writing for social change. Now Gay-who is also the author of such beloved best-sellers as Bad Feminist and her memoir, Hunger-is sharing her wisdom with a new audience.