I have to stop talking so much in class. Second class and I'm already That Annoying Girl. But it's public health law class and a) I know next to nothing about law, so half the times I raise my hand it's a question and b) today we talked about ethics! Totally impossible to keep my mouth shut.

Which moves nicely to something I've been pondering - am I becoming Toby Ziegler? I mean, I've always felt like I have a strong sense of personal ethics, but Toby is frequently my least favorite West Wing character, often because I find his principled stands unstomachable. But lately I've noticed that not only am I hard on myself when it comes to these things, but I'm starting to be hard on other people too...I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've gotten frustrated with and judgemental about students who I didn't think lived up to a certain amount of personal responsibility, politicians who aren't willing to stand up for their so-called ideals, I'm becoming less forgiving and understanding of people who lack the moxy to speak 'truth to power' (in whatever context), etc. etc.

And a personal code of ethics brings us to Sid, to whom I have to give a little shout out. He left a comment here a while ago describing something I wrote as eloquent. Now, because I can't take a compliment, of course I feel compelled to disagree, but I also have to say that if I am ever eloquent, it is at least in part thanks to Sid. Although he often drives me nuts with his devil's advocacy, I honed my debating skills at case arguing with Sid, among others. And it's served me well. I learned to really think through my positions and look up facts to back them up. And what do you know? I've actually changed a couple of people's minds about things (which is, in a way, scary. I often forget that people listen when I speak. Mostly I just run off at the mouth for my own edification. Pretty much from when I learned to form words and sentences teachers would send home report cards that said, "Good student. Talks too much." which brings us to a nice conceptual circle, so I'm done.).