I’ve been thinking, yes, the neoliberal administrator sucks something nasty. But on the other hand, he’s done an enormous good to our campus. Nobody cares about microaggressions, anti-racism or pronouns anymore. I have literally not heard a woke proclamation in a year. The land acknowledgements that had been adopted a few months before he arrived have been abandoned completely.

An amazing feeling of solidarity has descended on us. Everybody agrees on how much we detest this guy. It’s become extremely easy to find common ground with anybody who works on campus. An uncomfortable silence can be turned into a moment of beautiful union and camaraderie with a simple, “so, what do you think about the new guy?”

I’m starting to think that if he cures us of pronouns and land acknowledgements, maybe the budget cuts are worth it. People mess around with that stuff because they are bored. Once you have actual problems, all that silliness goes away. Nobody worries about their gender identity in Bakhmut. We don’t need to let it go that far but a little taste of real-world hardship might be useful.

People say they keep seeing our Russian teacher walk around campus, holding hands with a Russian guy. It’s possible, of course, that she found a substitute for her husband but it’s not like Russian men are thick on the ground in this region. It’s more likely that her husband who ran away to Mexico to escape from the draft in Russia has crossed the border and she’s now hiding him in the dorms.

I detest these draft evaders because they are more vicious against Ukraine than those who got enlisted, so I hope not to run into him.

I thought I should do something special for my birthday tomorrow , something that I don’t normally do.

But then I realized that I really like everything I do every day. I like my life. So I’ll just do what I always do.