“I’ve had to evaluate my core values,” she said, and find a new identity and community without the work she loved. She was eventually diagnosed with a subtype of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, a group of hereditary disorders that weaken collagen, a component of many sorts of tissue. For three years she had frequent bouts of paralysis.
She went on disability and moved in with relatives. It became impossible to continue her career. Her life, from classes to research to hours spent in campus cafes, felt like one long, fascinating conversation about human nature and government.īut then she started getting very sick.
Her work determined where she lived and who her friends were. “Being a political theorist was my entire adult identity,” she told me recently. He is the author of the forthcoming book “ The End of Burnout,” from which this essay is adapted.Ī dozen years ago, my friend Patricia Nordeen was an ambitious academic, teaching at the University of Chicago and speaking at conferences across the country.
Malesic is a writer and a former academic, sushi chef and parking lot attendant who holds a Ph.D. With resolutions from New York Times readers
