They Missed My PhD Graduation—So I Used The Empty Seats To Tell The Truth

from friends and labmates.

Sarah: Meet by the dome at 1?

Marcus: Proud of you, Doc!!

Rachel: We’re going to scream SO loud when you walk across that stage.

I clung to those messages like lifelines, like oxygen masks in a depressurizing cabin.

Outside, Cambridge was its usual chaotic self—bicycles weaving between cars with reckless confidence, tourists stopping continue reading …