"Proud to be an American."

Twice over the past year, I've been studying at a bar and some (drunk) (white) person has asked me what's up, and I say that I have a Ph.D. and went bohemian and I am breaking new ground on an ancient language in my spare time, and I do this as kind of like an intense and time-consuming artistic practice, and they totally just go with it, and, even more than that, they say that what I'm doing makes them "proud to be an American."

Something about it just strikes them, that I can just strike out and do this and live my love, and it just really captures their imagination.

Neither of the two people who said this to me seems to have had any substantial ties to the academy, either; one was a random (30s) (stoner) (white) dude, and the other was a (late 50s) (white) mom whose daughter was actually graduating that spring with a linguistics degree.

Somehow, they just seemed really proud, that someone is doing what I'm doing right there in their midst, in their community.

It really is just this deep and genuine reaction that I simply never would have anticipated taking place, where they're just taking me at my word and at face value and are just showing me the most immediate and most deepest fondness and respect.