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Because the failures of a flawed system are not my personal failures.
Because I am tired of being made to feel like a failure because I have been failed by a flawed system.
Because doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is stupidity.
Because participating in a system that degrades, demeans, and disempowers you is masochism.
Because productivity for productivity’s sake is futility.
Because stupidity, masochism, and futility should not be rewarded.
Because obfuscation, elitism, arrogance, and self-righteousness should not be rewarded.
Because my talents, accomplishments, experiences, and hard work are not acknowledged or rewarded in this system.
Because I am not not nurtured, encouraged, or valued in this system.
Because those in a position to change the system do not.
Because I refuse to believe that a system that does not value me is the only one in which I can have worth.
Because I am enduring personal, financial, and professional hardship to no perceivable purpose.
Because I am being limited personally, financially, professionally, and creatively.
Because I already got what I came for -- three advanced degrees and immersion in a subject I love.
Because I want to continue to love it.
Because life is short.
Because sometimes I consider how my light is spent.
Because I don’t want to live here.
Because I am prevented from doing the work I was trained and prepared to do.
Because there are other places where that training and preparation will be rewarded, respected, and used.
Because I am capable of more than I can do here.
Because leaving the system is a reclamation of the dignity and agency it has attempted to take from me…
I am leaving the academy.
