You May Call Me "Professor"

I'm happy to say that I'm making a big change. Next week will be my last week as an office manager, and my first week as a part-time English professor at a community college. I will also work as a tutor in their drop-in writing center.

This has been in the works for quite some time, but I didn't really believe it was going to happen. For many months now, I've been working part-time at a job that should be full-time. I had hoped that it could be turned into a job-share position, where 2 people work the full 40 hours. But as time went on, it looked like that wasn't going to happen and I was going to need to find something else.

But what? I really didn't want to work any more than I am currently—I was willing to be flexible on type of work, salary (to a point!), work time of day .... but spending more time away from Eleanor is one area that I wouldn't budge. So I've been stressing out over it a lot since January.

But slowly, things fell into place. We got to know some neighbors—a husband and wife who were both English majors, as well. He is a full-time, tenured English professor at this community college. Keith was doing a little looking around online and saw the posting for a part-time adjunct, and the next time I ran into the neighbor while we were both walking with our daughters, I asked his opinion about it. He got me in touch with the right people and reassured me when I didn't hear anything for months that it wasn't a bad sign, it's just a slow process.

And finally, it's happening. I'm wrapping up projects at my office, and planning my syllabus for class. I have a lot of anxiety right now, but I can tell that it's the good kind of anxiety. Anxiety about making a large life change .... one that is daunting from here, but I know that it will be a good, positive thing in the long run.

Wish me luck!