Apologies (from Erica)

Dear readers,

Today is apology time! Fun stuff, eh?

No, I didn't do anything criminal or anti-feminist or mean. In fact, some of you will probably read this and answer with a hearty "...why do we care?" But since Not Another Wave was envisioned to be a collaborative effort, I feel like this is important to do.

See, Emily and I work on this together. We may write our posts independently for the most part, but we love to spend a couple of hours at a stretch talking about this website and what we'd like to do with it next. Our last brainstorming session, in January, was what resulted in the daily questions we've been presenting for the last few weeks. We intended to share the load of question-asking.

I've been pretty remiss on that point, especially in the last week or so. I make no excuses aside from the standard "I'm unbelievably busy" explanation that seems to be contagious amongst graduate students- finishing two master's degrees, job hunting, moving abroad, and planning a wedding can have that effect. But this is a project that's been incredibly important to me since Emily and I started it, and the fact that it's slipped to the bottom of my pile is saddening. As a result, Emily's been carrying the burden for contributing to Not Another Wave over the past several weeks. I'm sorry I've been absent, readers. And I'm sorry I've abandoned you with all the responsibility, Emily. As of this post, I'm making sure that changes.

The questions I'm raising with this post aren't really questions, but more of a call for shout-outs from our readers to people that have really "been there" for them. Who, in your life, has really helped you out by shouldering a burden when you were overwhelmed or distracted by other projects? Who's been available for you 24/7 when you needed to call someone and complain or cry? Who's championed you when you've lost faith in yourself and your abilities?

Emily, you're an incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking feminist scholar. Collaborating with you on Not Another Wave has been a great experience, and was the perfect way to reconnect me to a broader community of feminist critique when I moved. Thank you for being part of this, for putting up with my sporadic unavailability, and for challenging me to keep thinking. I'm looking forward to seeing where we can take Not Another Wave next!