Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part III)

You can also check out Part I (teaching advantages) and Part II (research advantages), if you would like.


I'm going to continue my discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of doing a Visiting Ass. position before securing a tenure-track position. As a reminder, my goal was to ultimately end up in a tenure-track position at a small, primarily undergraduate, liberal arts institution.

Here are the advantages to a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the Service category:

Service

What's a committee? At least at primarily undergraduate institutions, first-year faculty rarely have to serve on committees. In fact, at TempCollege, no first-years-- TT or Visiting Ass.-- were put on committees. No monthly (or weekly...shudder) two-hour meetings sitting around a conference table contemplating how little my opinion matters? Score!

You can pick your contribution. Since you aren't required to do any service (since, you know, you aren't on the tenure track), you can control what you do or do not give time towards. I filled in as a faculty advisor for one of the pre-professional organizations. Some of my Visiting Ass. friends got involved in their field's national association.


Hmm... yeah. I can't really think of any more service advantages. Not having to do it is a pretty big one. Service stuff can be really rewarding, but it, as I am sure many of you can attest to, is a huge time suck. Huge!



Okay, now for the advantages to doing a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the LIfe category (so, yeah; pretty much all the left over crap)

Life

It's just a year. While this is perhaps beyond obvious due to the title of the position, I'm not sure it can be overemphasized. Living very far away from your significant other? (Check.) It's just a year. Living in a state or even time zone that you previously had not explored? (Check. Check.)

Along those lines...

You can be adventurous in location. Why not live somewhere completely impractical? (I'll leave that one up to interpretation.). Remember: it's just a year!

You can figure it all out. When I went on the job market, I had no idea what I was capable of. I applied to low tier PUIs and instructor positions; after only a few months at my Visiting Ass. I knew that I wouldn't be happy just as an instructor or at a school with zero research. My underestimation of myself was pretty surprising, in retrospect, because throughout my Ph.D. I was always very aware that I was good at research and teaching, so I wonder why I undershot job opportunities? If I had accepted one of my other offers rather than the VIsiting Ass., would I be as happy as I am now?

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part II)

(Part I, Teaching Advantages)

As a reminder, I went straight from grad school at LargeU to a Visiting Ass. position at TempCollege (a small, liberal arts school) to PermaU (a small, liberal arts school). They are all many miles and time zones apart.

Today I will address the research advantages (for me, for my chosen career path) to doing a Visiting Ass position.


Research

Keep in mind that most (do any?) Visiting Ass. positions do not require any research to be done. In fact, some places will downright discourage it.

You can take a break. There's no tick-tock of the tenure clock. No one expects you to do any research. You can take the nine months to regroup and recharge. I had no idea how burned out I was on 15 hour lab days until I got away from LargeU. I let two weeks pass before I even so much as clicked on an ASAP article feed. Then something unexpected happened. I started reading articles on subjects far removed from my thesis work. And most unexpectedly of all, I was actually interested in them. Not interested in a "oh, neat experiment" way but interested in a "oh, I think that could be followed up with X" or "wow, I should really try that" way.

I don't know if my situation was unusual or not, but in grad school perhaps because of lack of time or perhaps because of research snobbery (or maybe a combo of both), I just didn't typically find research outside of my project all that inspiring. Sure, I would attend (nearly) every departmental seminar, and I even frequently attended those outside of my college. I found other people's work interesting. I just didn't picture myself venturing outside of my research comfort zone. With my head clear, I was able as a Visiting Ass. to broaden my literature horizons and really think about research topics that I found interesting. My career goals did not include working at an R1 or even very tippy top PUI (and if they had, certainly I would have done a post doc!), so I knew I had the freedom to start pursuing areas in which I wasn't necessarily an expert.


You probably don't have time anyway. The reality of the first year at a primarily undergraduate institution is that you are, with only a few rare instances, doing completely new preps for classes in which there is an extremely high expectation level. (Maybe the high expectation level will only come from yourself!) Having research thrown into the mix could push you over the edge. At both TempCollege and here at PermaU, undergrads put in only a handful (as in four) hours of work a week during the academic year. Anything more is likely not going to happen; summers are for research. Would I have gotten research done at TempCollege if I absolutely had to? Probably, but certainly my teaching would have suffered.


Or maybe you DO have time! If you are so inclined, by all means do research during your Visiting Ass. time. It looks very appealing to hiring committees. It is very important to find out if your Visiting Ass. institution is open to the idea of you doing research and if they will give you any financial support. Most places will be supportive if you don't require any major purchases. Can you do projects with what they already have? Perhaps you can wrap up some data analysis from grad school? Can you run calculations while you are in the classroom?


(Stay tuned for more posts on the advantages and disadvantages of a Visiting Ass. job.)

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part I)

Many, many people-- bloggers, readers, people that know me in the real world-- have asked about the pros and cons of a visiting position. I'm going to start a series of posts about the pros and cons. (Since I'm the eternal optimist, I'll give you some of the good first.)

Some background for the uninitiated: this past academic year, I took a Visiting Ass. Professor position at TempCollege far, far away from N.A., my significant other. N.A. was in a tenure track position several states (and time zones) away. At TempCollege, I was treated as an almost equal. The students were amazing, and I really enjoyed my classes and colleagues. I learned a lot, and my department was very supportive of my pseudo job search in the fall. All of this will certainly not be the case for many Visiting Asses, but all I have to go on is my situation.

The categories I'm going to address include: Teaching, Research, Service, Location, and Life. Probably some more will come up (can I post a Chocolate category...hmm... we'll see.)

I'm going to start with the most obvious advantage(s) to a visiting ass. position: teaching.

Teaching

You get lots of mentoring. Sure it may sometimes be unsolicited, but I learned a LOT from the little teaching gems my colleagues passed along to me. Would I have gotten the same amount of mentoring if I was tenure track instead? Probably? Maybe?

You get loads of experience. Most of us TA at some point in graduate school. Depending on the position and institution, this teaching experience can be as hard core as solo lecturing or as straightforward as simply grading. Some TA positions involve prelab lectures, but at least in the sciences, most TA positions will either be a lab assistant (supervising lab and grading) or a recitation leader (mostly Q&A sessions). Even the solo lecturers often don't have full control over a course. A visiting ass. position is usually the first time one has complete control over a class for better or worse. Which leads us to...

It is finally acceptable to focus on teaching. If your graduate experience was anything like mine, then you were surrounded by, well, R1 professors who wanted nothing more than to create/inspire/brainwash (heh heh) the next generation of R1 professors. At LargeU, I often met bewilderment when I expressed my love of teaching. "Why would you WANT to spend time prepping lectures?" queried my fellow grad students. "But-but you're so GOOD at this level of research! Why would you not go on to {brilliant professor}'s group for a post-doc!" My graduate mentors were, mostly, stumped. Imagine the relief of not having to defend your love of teaching all the time? Or try to squeeze teaching experience out of the watered down TA positions? Rather than spend 80 hours a week in lab, I (quite gladly) spent my 80 hours (sigh...) each week in the classroom, prepping, meeting with students, and grading.

You can be adventurous in the classroom. Now is the time to try out new teaching techniques. You aren't on the tenure clock, so there is no true pressure to have rock star teaching evaluations (not that you wouldn't, of course). Always wanted to use clickers? Want to try out POGIL? If your school is open to new methods, a visiting ass. position is the prime time to take a teaching risk. If you have something especially clever and/or productive, it could lead to an education paper.

You get a jump start on networking. I now have an easy "talk trade." That is, I can invite one of my TempCollege colleagues down to PermaU to give a talk and they will return the favor. Really comes in handy as tenure approaches. It pays to take advantage of nearby colleges and universities while at a visiting position. Meet the other profs in your field. Join the local branches of your discipline's national organization. Attend regional meetings.

You have little (if any) power outside the classroom. (Note: this is a point, as you might imagine, that will come up on several other advantages AND disadvantages lists.) In terms of teaching, the best thing about having no power is that you can invoke said absence of influence to shoo away especially persistent salespeople or book buyers.

facebook frenzy

I don't like to mix Facebook with teaching. Some of my friends have pages for the classes that they teach (tolerable), join their class fan pages (suck-ups!), or friend students (creepy).

At TempCollege, students were very good about maintaining proper Facebook distance from professors. My students waited until I mentioned Facebook first (5 creepy points to meeeee!), and then, quite relieved, excitedly asked me what the hell my profile picture was. (For the record, I was posed next to a statue from a previous teaching assignment, and yes, my profile picture and name are the only FB items of mine that would-be student stalkers can access.)

Undergrad then tested the waters with a "so can I see your profile?" She laughed, indicated that she was joking....sort of.

I informed the crowd of upperclassmen my (very standard, I think) FB policy: I accept friend requests only after a student graduates.

They excitedly pointed out that I would be departing TempCollege in mere months. I agreed to modify my policy. I will accept friend requests after a student graduates or after I leave the institution.

The friend requests came pretty much the day after graduation. The others informed me that they had my departure date marked on their calendars (by calendar I assumed they meant electronically on their iPhones, not on an actual paper calendar... I mean, do people even use those anymore?).

"Aw," I said, "that's nice that you want to be sure that you tell me bye."

"No, Dr. Reaction! It's so we remember to facebook you!!"



Did I mention how much I miss my students?

A question for the masses: need a doctor?

I've previously blogged about my preference for being called Dr. Reaction by students. At TempCollege, my colleagues always referred to me as "Dr" in front of students. I automatically returned the favor without even thinking about it. Student in a conversation with Coworker #1 and myself? "So, Undergrad, as Dr. #1 and I were just saying...." Student proceeds down the hall? "So, Coworker, where were we?"

Here at PermaU, I am frequently referred to by new coworkers by my first name in front of students. It is starting to bother me because 1. I might have some of these summer students in the fall and 2. it isn't what I am used to. (And you all know how much I love change).


Of course, you should also bear in mind that:

- I am (by nature) a very tightly-wound, uptight person
- I have gotten so accustomed to being referred to by title and last name that I barely respond to my first name
- It *is* the summer, so I think things by nature are more relaxed
- I have no idea if this is the norm or not


But it has gotten me thinking: while I of course expect students to refer to me by Dr., does it really matter if I am talked about in conversations with them by my first name? While it is the way I was "academically raised," do students even notice?

Cheaters often prosper?

Cheaters often prosper because we let them. Some schools have such ridiculous requirements of paperwork/documentation to pursue a cheater, that it's not worth zinging a student for a few non-cited googlings. Other schools have such lenient plagiarism/cheating policies that faculty don't even bother reporting incidents.

When I was interviewing for jobs, I asked specific questions about how violations of the honor code were judged. Was the punishment policy black and white, or were decisions made on a case-by-case basis? Did my interviewers acknowledge that cheating and plagiarism did in fact occur, or were they blissfully in denial that cheating does and will occur in every type of class, even among the best students.*

Fortunately, TempCollege does not fall into either of those categories. My department is very aware of potential cheating problems, and Head has told me that the department would support me if ever chose to present an incident to the disciplinary board.

I might have to take Head up on the offer this week. This irritates me (particularly since my non-Spring break is fast approaching), but I'll be damned if cheating is going to occur under my "roof."





*Yes, I sound jaded. For good reason: in every single grad class I took, cheating occurred at some level. Blatant copying of problem sets, plagiarism on research papers, graphing calculator cheating, non-approved sources on take-home exams....I'm sure you could add to the list.

My love-hate relationship with recommendation letters

Oh, yes. Recommendation writing season is upon us. This week alone I need to write letters on behalf of students applying for summer internships, resident advisor positions, study abroad programs, scholarships, and even to transfer to other schools.

I enjoy talking to students about what they hope to accomplish and what they have already achieved. It's nice that they feel that I know them well enough after one class with them to write a favorable recommendation. I like thinking that I may be helping my students achieve their next step... even if it is to leave TempCollege.

But.

I really am not a fan of the actual writing of the letter.

For one, I'm horribly slow. I know I'm overthinking the whole process. I know I should be able to bang out a good recommendation letter in less than 20 minutes. I know all of these things.

Letterhead is my kryptonite. I feel all my coherent sentences draining out of me once I see (or think about!) printing onto the watermarked paper.

I'm sure that I will improve with time. But until then, I've got a dozen letters to get through.

just slap a sandwich board on me...

...or maybe I should just put up a big banner in the hallway: Students, Dr. Reaction is leaving this year. No, it is not your fault. No, there is no crying in science.

Every day for the past, oh, eight or so days, I've had to inform a student (or a whole lab section) that no, I will not be teaching here at TempCollege in the fall. I have a job. A job that should turn into a tenure track position.

While it is touching that my students (and students that I haven't actually taught!) get (so) upset when they realize I'm leaving, it's freakin' exhausting to have to address their concerns about my departure! I keep hoping that word will finally spread, but maybe I should just put a big sign on the student union, or take an ad out in the student paper?

Should I stay or should I go?

Historically, my big life decisions have not required me to select from just one of two choices; I have not met many proverbial forks in the road... more like sporks. For example, when I decided to go to graduate school, I knew I had the option of many disciplines. I also knew that I could easily change my mind at any point and leave. If LargeU ended up not being a good fit, I could (with minimal pain), pull up roots and switch to another program or school.

Likewise, when I decided to accept the Visiting Ass faculty position at TempColleg, I knew that I wasn't risking much: visiting positions are becoming more and more common (woohoo! Teaching postdoc, anyone?), so I wasn't worried about the job becoming a black mark on my CV. If I hated it, it was only nine months. If I liked it, bonus points.

So in recent months, I've been exploring new territory. I had to decide whether to go back on the active job market or continue on for another year at TempCollege. I chose to not put out any applications. The Boss was terribly disappointed that I was closing the door on all potential opportunities. The argument was made that I could leverage any tenure-track offers to try to gain a position at N.A.'s institution.

Now, a door has opened at N.A.'s institution. Would I still have this option if I had put out applications in September? No. In November? Maybe, but it would have been very interesting when it came time to do interviews.

So I guess in my case, it appear that by closing the door to other tenure-track possibilities, I have opened a (teeny, tiny) door to a potential position that would put me in the same city as N.A. Stay tuned for updates on my two-body situation!

scientiae-carnival

Sick Students

It seems like my students are always sick. Last month, it was the flu. Two weeks ago, a stomach virus was going around. Last week, three students informed me that they had a very personal kind of infection. (Remember? I get all the gory details.) And this week? They all sound like they have whooping cough.

But do my ailing students ever go to the doctor? Do they take advantage of the health center and get as much free cold medicine as possible to balance out their insane tuition and fees? Heck, no.

I don't understand it. They act surprised that the health center will actually do them some good. Sure, back in my undergrad days, all I ever got from the health center was some gatorade and a pat on a head. But the health center here at TempCollege is staffed by a team of actual doctors, and the facilities are awesome.

What will it take to get them to the doctor? I perpetually smell like Purell and orange juice as I try to keep their germs away from me. All I want for Christmas is a germ-free classroom

Separation of Politics and Classroom?

Today I had to fight against every fiber of my being not to hop up and down with glee during my lectures. I had to keep my hands in my pockets to keep from spontaneously hugging random students, colleagues, or cafeteria staff.

When it come to politics, I like to keep it out of my classroom. I don't think it's professional for me to discuss my political beliefs with my impressionable students. After all, balancing reactions is keeping them busy enough!

Here at TempCollege, it's very acceptable to post political signs on office doors, etc. I refrained, although I must admit I came very close to posting a celebratory "SUCK IT, BUSH-LOVERS" up today....although I suppose that phrasing wouldn't have been so kosher, either.

So what about you? Do you think it's okay to talk about your personal beliefs with students? Did you campaign at your school?

Do I look like a priest to you?

I've survived my first month! My students (mostly) like me, but more importantly, they (mostly) respect me.

I like to maintain a certain line between the students and me. For example, they need to email me if they miss class due to an illness, but I don't need to hear about their 2 am vomit session. I will acknowledge that they are constantly juggling classes with extracurriculars/sports, but I don't want them to tell me about their awesome hookups/booze/hangovers.

My students (mostly) understand this, and so they refrain from dropping little overshare nuggets on me. But in the last week or so, students have been popping into my office and confessing their little academic transgressions.

It started with one student confessing that they overslept another class. Then another let me know that they put their homework off until the last minute. Another told me about how they blew off a class last semester for no reason. The next day a student told me they weren't returning their parents phone calls. (I told them to pick up their cells, pronto.) And most recently, an athlete confessed how they broke some team rules during team study hall.

Now I get that sometimes my lectures might veer into preachy territory. Don't we all preach the commandment "Thou shalt not bear electronic devices into my classroom"? What about the oft-quoted "Thou shalt complete all problem sets in a timely, legible fashion"?

But I don't wear a freakin' collar. I'm not their damn priest.

Yes, I recognize that these little confessions most likely indicate that my students are comfortable with me. At least that is what I'm hoping. Hmm....should I be giving out penance duties? Let's see... Five extra problems and thirty flashcards? One chapter of reading and three derivations? Hmmm...... oh, the possibilities are endless.

Doctor, Doctor

I'm well aware that there are undergrad institutions where it is the norm to call professors by their first names. In graduate school, I rarely called the professors I worked with Dr. Collaborator.

However, here at TempCollege, students only call professors Dr. Whatever or Prof. Whatever. My students call me Dr. Reaction or Prof. Reaction. I'll even respond to Dr. R.

Occasionally, a student will slip up and call me Mrs. Reaction. It makes me bristle. I don't show it on my face, but I do always make sure I pointedly correct the student.

My reaction surprises me. When I was in college, I always thought it a bit over-sensitive when my professors corrected a student when they misspoke the title. Who cares, I thought. The rest of us knew the prof was a PhD.

So why do I insist that they call me Dr.? It's not because I need daily reminders that I suffered through almost five years of school for it. I guess I feel like students can convey their respect for me by using my proper title. It helps maintain a certain line.

Think I'm overreacting? Perhaps. But then again, what would you do if a student started an email with a Howdy Unbalanced?

It's gettin' hot in here...

When I teach, I've barely opened my mouth, and I can already feel the flush on my cheeks. Thirty-five pairs of eyes follow my lips-- no doubt seeing the sweat start to glisten on my upper lip and forehead. My armpits are sticky.


No, I'm not nervous.


My classroom is 84 degrees. I know this because someone nailed a thermometer next to the thermostat. The thermostat which is, obviously, not connected to an air conditioner.*

84 fucking degrees, with the windows open AND a box fan. Never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait for winter.



*Please note that the thermometer is right next to the door to the hall. The hall that is at least 10 degrees cooler. Therefore, I'm going to conservatively estimate that the classroom is another five degrees warmer. If I wanted to teach in the upper 80s, I'd head back to LargeUtown and teach my class outside.

Group work: good, bad, or just ugly?

I hate hate hated group work when I was a student. I would have rather had a solid hour of chalk-talk than have to clink desks with three of my classmates in order to work through some worksheet. However, in my own teaching, I like to pepper my chalk-talking with powerpoints, group discussion, and group work.

At LargeU, I was encouraged to incorporate group work as part of the four lectures a week. My students were wary of how effective groupwork would be, and a handful were openly hostile about having to give up valuable rote-memorization time in order to engage in thoughtful discussion with their fellow classmates. I was able to incorporate some group work into most class meetings, and I was surprised to see that students (mostly) responded favorably to it. On the end of the semester evaluation, dozens of students cited the in-class group work as the most helpful part of the class-- second to my brilliant lectures, I'm sure.

So starting here at TempCollege, I knew that the students would benefit greatly from my group work activities. I anticipated their hesitation. I called them out on their eye rolls before they even blinked. I passed out the pre-semester surveys (including my standard question: "how do you feel about group work?") with a disclaimer that I fully expected some apprehension about group work.

Imagine my surprise when 60ish surveys were returned to me, their pages brimming with positive statements about the value of working with others, as well as a few cautionary tales about how sometimes one person ends up doing the work for everyone else. Nearly all of my students have not only done (and loved group work) but have done group work in every single class in high school.

So is this just a regional thing, or has group work suddenly become the go-to teaching mechanism at high schools (and colleges)?

dangling the carrot?

One point that came up over and over during my faculty orientation was the fact that TempCollege students need incentives in order to complete work. Assign problem sets without potential for collection? Don't expect the work to get done. Have 100 pages of reading without a graded quiz? Don't expect the work to get done. Put it another way: there needs to be consequences if work is not completed.

Some of my fellow new faculty initially were taken aback by this. "TempCollege students are top students! They are smart! They will do the work on their own!"

That got me thinking. In the "real world", most people only rise to the expectations set for them. When people go beyond their job requirements, others are surprised (and occasionally perplexed!). Job descriptions, policies, and deadlines are employed for a reason.


If many so-called adults need consequences to get the job done, should we really find it that surprising that our students need similar motivation?

What a difference a location makes...

It's so refreshing to return to my liberal arts roots. LargeU served its purpose: I got my degree from a top institution. But what a difference the change in location is.

My position at TempCollege is a temporary, one year position. In the coming months, I will be applying (again) for jobs. I want a tenure-track position at a small, liberal arts school. Preferably near N.A. (The two-body problem is so stressful, that I'll have to post about it at a later time.) We'll see what happens.

At LargeU, professors were stopping me in the hall to tell me what a tragic mistake I was making. They recognized (as I did) that by choosing to go the SLAC route, I would be removing myself from my current research field. "You're too good! Why would you not do a post-doc and apply for better jobs?" I heard this several times a week. However, I knew what I was doing. The product of academic parents, I grew up in the shadow of a huge R1 institution. I do not want that lifestyle. Although there is a lot of discussion in the blogosphere on how things should change, etc. etc., I know that they won't in my lifetime...or at least tenuretime.

Even though classes haven't started, I already feel at home at TempCollege. My colleagues are amazing, and I've met numerous faculty from other disciplines. Everyone is exceptionally warm, helpful, and supportive. Here I am actually encouraged to go the SLAC route (of course), and phone calls have already been made on my behalf.

By this time next year, I'll either be starting my dream job or be scrambling for work. Let's hope it's the former!

Life after grad school...

...is good. Really, really good. Like, much better than I ever would have thought. When I last left LargeU, it was nearly 11 pm, and I was exhausted from hours of packing up my apartment followed by a frantic 2 hours of packing up the office. I cried the whole way to the hotel, had a restless sleep, and then got the hell out of LargeUtown with the sunrise.

Although much of my life is still in boxes, I've gotten settled in to TempCollege Village. I've figured out where to buy most of the essentials. The rest I've added to my amazon.com shopping cart. I've gotten most of my books in my office.

Oh, yeah. My office? Huge. Well lit. Biggest. Desk. Ever. I've drafted my syllabus, finished my prep for the first day of classes, and written up a pre-semester survey for my students. I've been going home at 5 pm each day. I haven't been working at night. At all.

I've watched countless hours of Olympics. My ironing is done. My laundry is caught up, and my apartment is clean. I've been blowdrying my hair and wearing mascara.

Life could not be more different than grad school.

I know that things will get crazy once the students arrive. My fellow faculty give me this knowing look when the subject of free time comes up. "Just you wait," they say. "You won't have any time once the semester starts."

While I'm sure they're right, I can't help but think: I'm used to cramming classes and teaching AND research into my week. Here, I'm just teaching. N.A. is many states away. I have no family here. No distractions (although N.A. would be a WELCOME distraction).

It's going to be a good semester.

Wedded Bliss...?

N.A. and I have only been dating about half a year, but we are both old enough (and..um...mature enough?) to know that what we've got is a good thing. The M word has come up because neither of us believed that it would be worth the emotional (and financial, for that matter) strain to put us through a long distance relationship if we didn't think that we might one day make the ultimate commitment (and I don't mean sharing a cell phone plan).

Still, I'm a practical person. I've never been one of those girly-girls who day dream about their wedding day. I don't know if it's all the nesting I've been doing as I get settled or just the TempCollege Village water, but the other night, all I could see was Wedding!

It started innocently enough. The book I'm reading has illustrations each chapter. Since it's about a wedding dress designer, the pictures have to do with dress designs. Curious about the neckline pictures, I googled one of them (portrait). 20 minutes of dress browsing later, I was startled by my cell ringing.

"What're you up to, sweetheart?" (yes, N.A. calls me that).

"Uh...uh..." I reluctantly admitted my embarrassing googlings, but insisted that it didn't mean anything. Needy wedding-crazed woman I am not.

My explanation was met with silence. After a minute or so of that, N.A. finally spoke. "Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but today, during my driving tour, we stopped at this great reception hall and I got a brochure. I know it's silly, but I wanted to look through it."

From there, he directed me to the hall's website. That quickly led to us searching together (via cell phone on our respective MacBook Pros) for caterers which of course led to the discussion of appropriate flower decorations for the church. We were just starting to discuss the guest list when we both abruptly stopped. We were laughing too hard to continue. What were we thinking? We weren't even engaged, so what the hell were we talking about?!?


Okay, so we got wrapped up in the moment. But how refreshing to be dating someone that isn't afraid of commitment!

Now if we could only commit to dates for a weekend meet-up....

Age = just a number?

During my move across half the country and then my first few days here in TempCollege Village, I've had the following conversation no less than fifty times (and yes, I fully acknowledge that I'm prone to exaggeration, but that is an underestimation, promise):


Random person: So are you here for school?

Me: Um, no. I moved here for work. A job at TempCollege.

Random person: Oh yeah? What are you doing?

Me: Teaching. I'm a one-year faculty hire.

Random person: But-- but you're too young to teach!


A few comments about the above broken record.

First, I'm extremely uncomfortable with identifying my overeducation to nonacademics. I'm the product of an academic family from a very academic town, so I was brought up surrounded by white collar types. So I'm very hesitant to outright tell people I am faculty (and therefore Dr. Unreaction). If I would just tell them from the start, maybe I could nip such conversation in the bud?

Second, I've recently been actively TRYING to dress older (I haven't worn one t-shirt outside of my house, promise!) yet even today I was given the student tour of the gym facilities (including a semi-sketchy run-through of some underground tunnels for 20 minutes until I finally interrupted the poor kid and said "yeah, I think you should show me the location of the faculty locker room instead since that's what I'll be using." ...yes, I don't know why there are separate student/faculty locker rooms either, but I like it!)

Yes, I realize that my youthful appearance will serve me well in 20 years or so, but for now, I'm just ready for some 18 year olds to get back on campus so I can at least (by comparison) appear older!