Directions and Destinations
It’s official: I’m no longer a professor.
Recently, I left my most recent adjunct job, which in the realm of adjuncting, was probably the best gig ever. I worked with a long-time mentor and a great colleague who was finishing his doctorate but never treated me any differently because I didn’t have one. I got to design a special topics course, teach a core upper-level course, and was consulted in department matters and asked to speak on campus as a representative of the department. I taught at the university where I got my Bachelor’s and had wonderful, challenging students. Truly, apart from money, I couldn’t have asked for more.
But of course, there’s the rub: money. Without a doctorate, I was never going to be able to make a full-time go of teaching at the college level. And the more I thought about it, the less likely a doctorate seemed for me. With my husband in law school for the next three years, that certainly put a pinch in the timing, but also, as you can see from my description above, teaching has always been the primary draw for me. I enjoyed doing academic research, have successfully published and been invited to present at conferences, but I haven’t done any academic research in a few years now, and I don’t miss it. At all. I’m a writer, true, but academic writing is the least of what I do, and the one I least enjoy.
So once I knew teaching was it for me, the be-all end-all, the primary draw, the vocation I felt belonged to me, then the choice seemed clear. And once I was offered a full-time position at the Single Sex School where I’ve been part-time teaching, the choice was even easier. I have spent so many hours this summer immersed in pedagogy and research and planning, and it’s been wonderful. And while it took me a while to get here, every teaching job I’ve had has made me a better teacher, has made me more capable of tackling this job now, a career kind of job that I see myself keeping for the foreseeable future.
So now I’m no longer a professor, but still and always, a teacher. This is what I’m meant to do, and I’m lucky enough to get the chance to do it, at a wonderful school, with amazing colleagues, exactly where I want to be.
Congratulations!
I’m glad to hear about the full-time position at Single Sex School. And I also understand the regret at letting the adjunct gig slip away, since your class there sounded so interesting; the decision undoubtedly makes sense financially, and you’ll have more than enough exciting challenges at SSS, but one would probably like to be able to do everything, time and human limitations be damned!
Yes– maybe when my girls are gone, I’ll try adjuncting again, but right now, when I see budgets slashed everywhere, and think about the stability I have at the wonderful school where I teach, I know I made the right choice.