What Would Buffy Do?

I have a headache. I'm burnt out. I'm tired. I have these moments when I wonder why I keep doing this---higher learning; seeking more work when I already have enough to do. Being a huge fan of BtVS, I find myself looking at the writing of Joss Whedon to inspire me. I always come back to this speech, given in Season 7: 

Buffy: I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. 'Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that's us. Any questions?

You might be wondering what this has to do with Whitman. Well, I'll tell you. I think Whitman was strong and determined, and that's how I want to be. I want to surge forward, not afraid to make my stand. I want to seek out what I am afraid of and win. Whitman tried to do this in his poetry. He got sidetracked by personal issues - we all do. People question my educational choices all the time. They tell me it's silly, too expensive, too stressful. They question the end result of this path I've chosen. I wonder how many people poo poo'd Whitman every time he put out a new edition of Leaves of Grass. The more important question, for me, is who stood by him? I hope I gain the answers to these questions. For the moment, I continue to ask myself, "What would Buffy do?" and then I pick myself up and continue forward.