I’m a full-time Ph.D. Student and a part-time instructor. The class I teach this semester is a 450 student section of Cinema. The room itself houses stadium like seating with two rows on either side of the center seating dividing the room into left, right, and center sections going all the way up to the back wall. I look up to the students from the low floor where I stand. There are four projectors in the room which shine on three large screens used to project computer screens, dvd’s and the new blu-ray formatted films each week.
It was in this space, with a captive audience of 450 unsuspecting students, that I chose to brag about my new son, Cillian. On the three large screens I projected images of my beautiful baby boy and beamed with pride that could hardly be seen (but surely felt) from the back rows of the large room. The large classroom of students responded with a mixture of applause and swooning sounds.
My mother tells stories of my father walking around with me (the eldest child) in his arms after church on Sunday’s hoping to see someone he knew so that he could show off his son. Dad was proud of me and excited about my future. I’m mimicking that behavior now with my own son. My father was clearly a good role model.
My son is an extension of my family tree. He is an important part of the larger family tree of my parents, and their parents, and on and on until the beginning of time. While the title of this article is “Extreme Bragging,” those words carry with them negative connotations. I do not, however, know of a better way to define my activities on the first day of class. “Super Pride?” Even that has some negativity in it. Perhaps “pride” and “bragging” can be overdone. They can also be underdone. But, like Goldilocks, my bragging was neither too big nor too small, but just right.