Abstract
In this academic memoir, I investigate the available means of persuasion that have shaped my development as a teacher, writer, and scholar. To do so, I recount and reflect on my long-term association with the University of New Hampshire English Department and its many faculty and alumni. As I share my experience with the UNH “tribe,” I attempt to discover a professional identity which honors my UNH forebears and our tribal knowledge and customs while simultaneously accommodating my continued growth as a teacher, writer, and scholar in the larger tribe of composition and rhetoric. To accomplish all this, I enact or perform one of the most fundamental tenets of my UNH community—writing is a vehicle for making greater meaning of one’s life.