Spring 2025 Newsletter
It’s been four years and seven months since I’ve sent an update. Back then I had written that I was about to start graduate school, but I wasn’t prepared for how demanding graduate school would be. As a consequence, my personal website fell to the wayside.
But I’m back, with an update!
Personally, my life has been a rollercoaster ride. I graduated with my master’s degree in philosophy in 2023, but graduate school sapped all my strength. I finished my time as a student by studying abroad at Bielefeld University, in Germany—an experience that has had a profound impact on me and that I will always cherish—but during my time abroad, my partner of seven years left me. My partner’s leaving me resulted in me losing not only my best friend of ten years but also my flesh and my fur, Otis. (My sweet Shuh Buh Buh One, my Do.) When I arrived back in the States, I was facing joblessness and homelessness, but luckily some friends of mine took me in and gave me the time and space I needed to rehabilitate. And I did.
Long story short, I’ve since achieved one of my dreams: I’m gainfully employed as a full-time assistant professor of philosophy, at Nightingale College, where I teach applied ethics to nursing students. Working at Nightingale College has given me the resources I needed to become a much better version of myself than I was, well, four years and seven months ago. Self-improvement is a Lebensaufgabe, but I’ve earnestly thrown myself into the task; I’ve found the eight-dimensions-of-wellness framework particularly helpful to that end. (You can learn more about the eight dimensions of wellness here, if you’d like.) I’m also well housed, fed, inspired, and coupled; and what feels the best about all of these facts is that I’m largely (but not exclusively) to thank for them being true. I came through for myself.
It also turns out that when you’re able to meet your material needs, space opens up in your life to focus on those things that really matter to you, like your work. So I’ve been working earnestly on my writing and studying. I have several projects going at the moment, besides working on my novel: I’m producing a podcast on critical thinking and its importance with my colleague Benjamin Moss; I’m reading Paul Reitter’s translation of Karl Marx’s Capital with a friend; I’m reading through Jean-Paul Sartre’s early philosophy; I’m doing a study of the trivium (of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, in both English and German); I’m studying the Stoics (Seneca at the moment); and so much more. (I think I’m maybe doing too much . . .)
I have much to look forward to over the next four years and seven months and will do my best to keep you updated. (I promise not to be irritating though; I only plan to send out seasonal newsletters.) I know that in May I leave the States to work abroad in Europe, where I plan to also connect with friends and travel with my partner. (Thank you, Nightingale.) Other than that, I will be finishing Critical Thinking, for the Rest of Us in June and, as always, chipping away at On the Arctic Glass. I may also publish a lecture on Epictetus and start a new lecture series with Ben on the ethics of using AI in higher education. So stay tuned!
But I would like to end by thanking you for your support and patience over the years. Thank you. Now it’s my turn to give back, as best as and in the ways that I can.
Take care,
Ryne MacBride
