Thread: hindsight is always twenty-twenty [loki & angelicxdream]

Jaime could really have used some air. For the past 45 minutes he had went on and on about a former dissertation. The social perception on female lunatics in 19th century England. Quoting contemporary Victorian literature and documents from the national archive had all been well and good but Jaime could have gone on simply talking for hours. He had a passion for history. A passion for stories and the legacy people left behind for later generations. Jaime had always been fascinated by past events that had essentially shaped the world he lived in today. The conference was, by no means, a small one. It was no surprise that several of the people in attendance were of the female persuasion. He wouldn't have particularly called his focus a feminist approach but he welcomed the lens from which it could be viewed as such. Jaime was simply happy to be there, talking about what he loved and sharing what he knew with his colleagues and fellow history-buffs. He finished to great applause and smiled his charming smile. The water bottle that had been resting on his podium had never looked so sweet and he found himself chugging half of it down before all manner of hands reached out to shake his and congratulate him and thank him. Jaime was all smiles and modesty as he welcomed the praise and answered questions eagerly. There was no other place he would have rather been than right here. He lived for this. Jaime was fairly young as far as professors went. Only just having turned 31, it always struck him as rather bizarre that someone like him had wound up teaching at one of the world's most prestigious universities. Not to say that he hadn't worked hard to get where he was. That doctorate hadn't come easy and he had spent a long time working as a teaching assistant until his unbridled passion seemed to open the eyes of his seniors. His students were fond of telling him that there was more to life than lecturing and he would always laugh it off though he knew the harmless jibes weren't completely unmerited. Teaching was just as much a passion of his as was the study of history. Jaime loved nothing more than to stand in a lecture hall before a sea of fresh faces, enlightening them and inspiring them. Reading essays was something most sane professors would have claimed to hate but Jaime was not among them. He relished in reading over the work his students provided and often times would learn a thing or two himself. It was no surprise that he was consistently a favourite in his department and Columbia as a whole. At 6'2 and just around 83kgs, Jaime was on the slender slide. His eye colour was a topic of debate and rather than correct a person, he would smile and allow the ambiguity to run its course. Sometimes they were blue, other times they were green, or perhaps they were blue-green, or even a shade of a grey. His hair was light and had a natural curl to it that was far more pronounced when he wore it short. He had a thin face that could almost be considered gaunt and very straight teeth that could either make for a dazzling smile or a truly frightening one. It was a pleasant face, really. Too odd to be truly handsome but nice to look at all the same. That wasn't to say he didn't have most of his female students swooning, a fact he claimed to be unaware of by choice. It was ponderous how far an English accent and an easygoing smile could take a man but he wasn't complaining. Jaime rarely complained about anything. He led a good, simple life and couldn't truly ask for more. The past few years had been devoted to his teaching and his research and Jaime would be the first to say that he had no regrets, at least, none where his work was concerned. By the time the conference had ended, Jaime found himself shuffling through the crowd and scanning the refreshments table. It would have suited him better to grab some air. He had only just finished speaking with the research director of the Berkman Center for Internet and society at Harvard and was almost certain that if he didn't take a moment to himself, he would soon lose his voice. Chuckling softly at his predicament, Jaime exercised the natural advantage his height offered him and politely pushed past a few people in search of the nearest exit. It was getting awful stuffy in there.