Life Is Tough

By Tracy Mitrano. In the fall of 1989, I was a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Buffalo. I loved the job, I loved the city, I loved my apartment in downtown Buffalo and I loved my colleagues. Had I sought a career in history, I would have followed the footsteps of Ellen DuBois, the wonderful historian of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who had recently departed from there for UCLA. Having decided in 1981 to get a doctorate in history, and then go to law school on my way to a career in academic administration, that trajectory was not in the cards. Just before I left Ithaca, where I was teaching, I met the man who would become my husband.  We married in August of 1991. In December I made my last trek from Buffalo back to Ithaca, pregnant with my first boy, who is now 21. Read more...