NIHAL WHELAN. CORNELL TA, HISTORY POST-GRAD.
“It’s all messy: the hair, the bed, the words, the heart. Life.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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FULL BIO:
PAST
even from a young age, stable was a concept completely foreign to nihal. his father passed away when nihal was only three years old, leaving the young boy with only slivers of memories of his father; memories that fade and become hazy with the passing of time. it was a few years later that his mother remarried, and while nihal was filled with reluctant hope at the beginning of the relationship, hoping for a family, for security, all he got was the opposite.
it wasn’t long before his new step-father became controlling, both with nihal’s mother and nihal himself, eventually turning to abuse — both mental and physical. it was only a few years later, when nihal was ten years old and the physical abuse was so frequent that the bruises and cuts hadn’t even healed before he was giving more of them, that nihal finally couldn’t take it anymore. his mother had attempted to leave more than once, promising nihal over and over that she would, but eventually he got tired of waiting. his step-father had a gun, he knew, and the man was stupid enough to leave it loaded, so he did what he had to do to free his mother from the hell that he’d inflicted upon them.
his mother panicked upon realizing what her son had done, immediately confessing to the crimes and disappearing once she had gotten out on bond, nihal ending up in the foster system. he always held out hope that she’d come back for him, that they’d be a family again, but she never did. he doesn’t know where she is now, but he looks sometimes, even now. but he tries not to let it take over his life.
PRESENT
nihal has always been a good student, not having many friends growing up so instead turning to reading as his escape, wanting to learn as much as possible about the world and how to navigate it. he fell in love with history at a young age, always curious about the events and stories of the past.
it was no surprise with his stellar grades that he was accepted to cornell, and with his near obsessive work ethic, that he eventually graduated with a history degree. he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do, and he loved learning and the world of academia, so it was no surprise to anyone when he applied for grad school.
selling drugs was something he started in his sophomore year when his part time job wasn’t enough to cover the massive costs he was incurring attending an ivy league.
selling drugs was easy and lucrative for him, something he’d done a bit of in high school as well to get some extra cash once in a while. before he knew it, he had an extensive clientele base, and it was all too easy to supply filthy rich trust fund babies with their party favors. he was so successful with it that it was a no brainer to continue once he was in grad school, his side hustle paying for the bulk of his schooling, and allowing him to get a leg up on his student loans.
becoming a TA wasn’t something that nihal had thought would’ve been in the cards when he was an undergrad, but it was something he fell into easily as a grad student, one of his professors he’d gotten close with in his department recommending him for the position. he decided to try it out in a trial basis, but he soon found that he absolutely loved it, far more than he ever thought he would.
FUTURE
nihal isn’t quite sure what the future holds for him, but he can’t deny that teaching history is something he’s grown to love. pursuing a position as a history professor is becoming more and more appealing, though he’s still on the fence. committing to one thing is a terrifying prospect for him, ever-afraid of failure and the unknown.
