Validation
About a month ago, I found out that one of my professors from grad school, Dr. Thomas Keenan, passed away on the 1st of January this year. He had been battling cancer, and although his health had been declining over the past year, he had continued to share updates on Facebook. When those updates stopped, I searched for news and discovered he was no more. During the COVID pandemic, I spent a lot of time reconnecting with people from my past, and Tom was one of those who responded from my NZ days. I remember feeling delighted that he remembered me. Over the last five years, we stayed in touch on and off through Facebook Messenger, and I feel grateful for that. Back when I was a student, he was easily one of the most popular professors on campus, and his classes were ones I always looked forward to. What I remember most about Tom’s classes was the validation he gave each of us when we contributed or produced good work. In my first year of the MA in Psychology program, we were each as...
