Summer Goals- #ShiftPerspective

1. This is one of my favorite scenes in a movie. For lots of reasons, but mainly bc it emphasizes how important it is to #ShiftPerspective

 

2. Last Spring I went back to teaching high school, so I backed off Twitter #ShiftPerspective 

3. But as the election came around, I drifted back, finding community, finding solace #ShiftPerspective 

4. Before the election, I used Twitter to extend my scholarly/work community. I connected with global scholars & Ss #ShiftPerspective 

5. We shared our latest projects. Cool articles we found. Manuscript images. Asked questions. Crowd sourced. #ShiftPerspective 

6. We weren't robots- while most I know used it mainly for work, we also shared walks, hikes, kittehs, doggos. #ShiftPerspective 

7. #medievaltwitter was a real community to me, although so were my early modernist, fan-fic, & pop-culture folks. #ShiftPerspective 

8. I got book chapters, articles, help, conferences, cool ideas, and most of all support, from these communities. #ShiftPerspective 

9. But things have changed since November. Because it's all so much worse than even we thought it would be. #ShiftPerspective 

10. "Dumpster fire" doesn't even cover it. The levels of hate, racism, misogyny jump exponentially. Daily. #ShiftPerspective

 

11. Now we live in fear of what global catastrophe happens if we take the dog for a walk. Or sit down to dinner. #ShiftPerspective 

12. During Inauguration (when I didn't know how bad this was all going to get), I started following more news, politicians #ShiftPerspective 

13. My TF was always an odd mix- climate scientists, snakes, water scholars, medievalists, historians, pop-culture. #ShiftPerspective 

14. Now, there were news outlets, pundits, talking heads, politicians. It seemed like the only way to hear the truth #ShiftPerspective 

15. Mainstream news was too far behind, bowing to their corporate gods, were already to blame for normalizing 45 #ShiftPerspective 

16. The power of social media, of not letting people get away with shit, has been instrumental in even holding this line. #ShiftPerspective 

17. But, as many of people have written about, long term hyper awareness, fear, always being on, is harmful. #ShiftPerspective 

18. We may be sleeping less. Eating more crap. Constantly worried. We may be less productive. Not focusing. #ShiftPerspective 

19. Back in January (and yes, it's like dog years) I started to see this in small measure. #ShiftPerspective 

20. I tried to post one medieval, early modern, pop-culture story for every 45 dumpster fire. #ShiftPerspective 

21. The problem is, we were all so overwhelmed, it got harder and harder to FIND these stories. We collectively gave up. #ShiftPerspective

22. But now the semester is over, and most of us have transitioned into summer work mode. #ShiftPerspective

 

23. Most have had some time to catch up on sleep, recharge our energy, spend time with folks. #ShiftPerspective 

24. So 24 Tweets in, here's my suggestion- take the summer to shift your perspective. #ShiftPerspective 

25. I encourage us all to stand on our desks. To step back. To think about what we want to prioritize. #ShiftPerspective 

26. When pagers first came out, & asked how he liked it, answer- it's great, but remember it's for your conv. not theirs. #ShiftPerspective 

27. So maybe that's how we shift. Accurate, quick, untold news have been a feature of Twitter since its inception. #ShiftPerspective 

28. So keep using it, it's a resource. But just because we read it doesn't mean we need to RT it. We can all see it. #ShiftPerspective 

29. But maybe this summer we make an effort to share our work. What book chapter, blog post, article are YOU working on? #ShiftPerspective 

30. Share a cool manuscript image you found. A scrap of an idea. A cool teaching strategy that you tried this year. #ShiftPerspective 

31. Post a picture of your kitteh or doggo doing something stupid. Or you on a hike. Or live-tweet a movie. #ShiftPerspective 

 

32. Take the time this summer to not just #ShiftPerspective but maybe make some new habits moving forward. They say it takes 6-8 weeks.

33. So that's my challenge to us all. I have a diss that's finished, but needs committee revisions, approval. #ShiftPerspective 

34. I want to focus on that, get that done, get a fall defense. Turn a CH --> article, send out. Revise another article. #ShiftPerspective 

35. Catch up on my TBR pile. Go to the library. Get more. #ShiftPerspective

 

36. So today, think about it. Post your summer goals using #ShiftPerspective Take friends, invite them to pass baton, share @TheMedievalDrK