News

Well there it is. I GOT A JOB.

It is a school in Massachusetts. No, not that one. No, not that one either!!!! Probably not that one either. It’s a big research university in a small quaint town and I am delighted.

After all these years, after all this heartbreak and shame, to finally have a job feels odd. I keep forgetting, and sliding back into my characteristic miasma of doubt and terror, and then remembering, and sliding into a different miasma of doubt and terror. But the second miasma is more productive because it’s comprised of doubt and terror concerning my First Real Job and all the things I am going to have to learn how to do.

I shouldn’t say “real job” though. My current job is a real job. I have learned so much in these three years, and had so many great, productive experiences. Everyone here has treated me with complete decency and respect, and I’ve felt that my work is valued. And needless to say, my students are non pareil. I love them so much and will miss them so much. I’ve really come into my own as a teacher here, and learned so much about course planning and grading and classroom management. I’ve also gotten the opportunity to do advising, which has been really eye opening. It’s just been huge for my career development all around and I’m so happy to have been here for 3 years, at what is, lets be real, my dream job.

So, I’m not going to my first real job, but I am going to my first stable and somewhat permanent job. And it does feel good to knock that “Visiting” off my title, let me tell you. I will be going to faculty meetings! I will be supervising theses and master’s theses!! I will have TEACHING ASSISTANTS. I will have thousands and thousands of dollars of “startup money” that I can use for any aspect of my career development (French lessons; research trips to New York; a piano). I have my very first Actual Middle Class Grownup Salary.

Perhaps most amazingly of all is that fact that during my sweaty negotiation period, during which I was reading blog entries about how women negotiate poorly and realizing that I make every single mistake cited, I girded my loins and bit the bullet and asked for a job for my husband and THEY GOT HIM ONE. Not tenure track, of course, as he’s ABD, but they got him full time teaching. This is huge for us financially, of course, but its symbolic value can’t be overstated. It is infinitely cooler and more fun for us both to be moving together to start new lives, than for us to just move on my behalf and then he sits in the house for a year writing his diss. True, I think this could have been fine but it feels better this way, for him to be meeting his own new colleagues and students too, etc. I’m stressed out because everyone’s going to think I took his last name and I hate that so much.

Anyway, there you have it! We’re moving at the end of June I think.

We really, really need help finding a house to live in, p.s., so if you know people in Northampton I would really love for them to be moving out of their 3 bedroom farmhouse walkable to downtown and they just give us the lease

LET A DOG KNOW

speaking of dogs, snoopy doesn’t get it. I’ve told him we need to buy him a jacket but he doesn’t know why. I think our new town will be a nice place to raise a snoopy. Lots of other dogs there, and big sloping lawns, and a cool lazy small town way of life (i.e. swimming holes). Cross your fingers!