If there is one thing I’ve processed and accepted at the conferencing revelries of ICA, it is this:

Amidst the disjuncture of theory and praxis,
the acrobatics of confidence and vulnerability,
the politics of competition and friendship,
the labour of self-promotion and self-care,

we are allowed to feel multiple feelings at once,
just as others around us may also be feeling multiple feelings at once.

For all the bravado we academics are socialized into partaking,
may we never lose our empathy and care for each other.