Sometimes people like to ask \u201cWhat celebrity would you love to meet?\u201d They seem to expect a name of a movie star or a rock star. I enjoy movies and music but I am not interested in meeting those people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to meet people because of their ideas. I have a very short list of amazing thinkers and writers I would love to meet. I\u2019ve spent time with their thoughts and learned things that changed my life. I\u201dm a new and better person because of what these people have brought into the world. Those are the ones I would love to meet: academic celebrity crushes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I actually did meet one of these crushes. He lived right in my town and was a professor at one of the universities here. When my friend defended her dissertation and Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was leading the committee for my friend\u2019s defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I came to hear her dissertation, and I sat in the same room with my hero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt flamingly guilty the whole time.I wanted to support her, and I tooik time off from work to go. This was a fairly new job, and while I had slipped out for a long lunch and had it blocked off on my calendar. I loved hearing my friend\u2019s fascinating study, and I was thrilled to be breathing the same air as the man who did the work to write Flow.<\/em> I even raised my hand and asked a question during the audience participation portion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After dissertations, there is usually a party with champagne and snacks.I celebrate my new doctor friend with a hug, and Dr. Csikzentmihalyi invited me to stay for a drink and conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t do it. I was afraid, and I was shy. I told myself I would get it trouble if anyone noticed that I was gone at work.It was a new and important job, I told myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But that wasn\u2019t it. I was afraid of meeting my hero, and being seen by him. I ran away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This reaction is strange and predictable. I have been that acolyte, irresistibly drawn to the object of my adoration yet a coward at the last moment. Wasting my own time thirsting but not letting it touch my lips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are always reasons not to. There is always a risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi passed away last year. I had my small moment, and it will not come again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n That job was terrible and didn\u2019t last anyway. It was foolish to deny myself that conversation. What other tantalizing fruits have I forbidden myself from enjoying? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t always dare, but I want to <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dare to eat that peach. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes people like to ask \u201cWhat celebrity would you love to meet?\u201d They seem to expect a name of a movie star or a rock star. I enjoy movies and music but I am not interested in meeting those people. … Continue reading