And I'm really feeling very old today
Well. This has been an interesting year for me.
This year I got to try out the career path I'd chosen for myself, which was teaching, on a serious level. Notwithstanding the previous experience teaching the summer class, which I think doesn't really count. I found teaching to be in some ways very rewarding...the "lightbulb look" comes to mind, that look of illumination when a student finally got it. It made me so pleased. I'll always be proud of myself for the teaching, even though I don't know to this day how good a job I did.
I also came to realize that teaching wasn't the right career path for me at all. Moments of transitory reward aside, I just don't have the patience to long put up with a large number of undergraduates being...well, undergraduates. ("Professor, I'm leaving for my Spring break in Florida early, so I think you should let me out of Friday's quiz." Ack.) I guess that is a good thing to know about myself before I committed to a career doing that, rather than after.
I was also in a managerial position for pretty much the first time. I had to ride herd on nine or so TA's for the class, and I can't say I did so well with it. I tended to be a hands-off manager, just giving them something to do and expecting them to go do it. And it didn't really work that way. I suppose on the plus side I'd know better if I ever landed in another managerial role.
I got my first real nine-to-five job as a professional anything. I like my job pretty well, early mornings aside, and my research is interesting and varied. The company actually depends on me to produce things, and if I fail in my task it might go badly not just for me, but for pretty much everybody. This is a strange feeling for me, almost as though I'm a responsible adult-type person.
For those of you noting that this is coming pretty late given that I'm now 36...oh, be quiet, you.
I had a very interesting (ultimately, I mean "interesting" here in the sense of the Chinese curse) relationship that was almost exclusively on-line. I find the fact that I can have those sorts of feelings about somebody I knew only from words on a screen to be both enlightening and, given the outcome, a little disturbing.
I can also be vicious and vengeful, when given a really thorough and painful screwing-over. Whether or not my response was deserved by the receiving party is probably irrelevant. In an ideal world I wouldn't have done it, so I still don't feel that's a side of myself that I should indulge much.
And, I re-started the art thing. I'm now sketching again after a good twenty years of...not. I actually went and bought some drawing supplies from the expensive art store down the street, because I started thinking that what I had sucks, and I needed better. So, yeah, I'm in it now. And I don't think it's going badly for me, either. The sketch I did of Rhea is probably the best work I've ever done. I was very very pleased when Rhea liked it, so...I also might be a little more attached to external validation than I thought, which is probably not a positive thing.
Anyway. I survived another year, had new experiences both wonderous and awful, and learned lots about myself. So, you know. Yay me.
This year I got to try out the career path I'd chosen for myself, which was teaching, on a serious level. Notwithstanding the previous experience teaching the summer class, which I think doesn't really count. I found teaching to be in some ways very rewarding...the "lightbulb look" comes to mind, that look of illumination when a student finally got it. It made me so pleased. I'll always be proud of myself for the teaching, even though I don't know to this day how good a job I did.
I also came to realize that teaching wasn't the right career path for me at all. Moments of transitory reward aside, I just don't have the patience to long put up with a large number of undergraduates being...well, undergraduates. ("Professor, I'm leaving for my Spring break in Florida early, so I think you should let me out of Friday's quiz." Ack.) I guess that is a good thing to know about myself before I committed to a career doing that, rather than after.
I was also in a managerial position for pretty much the first time. I had to ride herd on nine or so TA's for the class, and I can't say I did so well with it. I tended to be a hands-off manager, just giving them something to do and expecting them to go do it. And it didn't really work that way. I suppose on the plus side I'd know better if I ever landed in another managerial role.
I got my first real nine-to-five job as a professional anything. I like my job pretty well, early mornings aside, and my research is interesting and varied. The company actually depends on me to produce things, and if I fail in my task it might go badly not just for me, but for pretty much everybody. This is a strange feeling for me, almost as though I'm a responsible adult-type person.
For those of you noting that this is coming pretty late given that I'm now 36...oh, be quiet, you.
I had a very interesting (ultimately, I mean "interesting" here in the sense of the Chinese curse) relationship that was almost exclusively on-line. I find the fact that I can have those sorts of feelings about somebody I knew only from words on a screen to be both enlightening and, given the outcome, a little disturbing.
I can also be vicious and vengeful, when given a really thorough and painful screwing-over. Whether or not my response was deserved by the receiving party is probably irrelevant. In an ideal world I wouldn't have done it, so I still don't feel that's a side of myself that I should indulge much.
And, I re-started the art thing. I'm now sketching again after a good twenty years of...not. I actually went and bought some drawing supplies from the expensive art store down the street, because I started thinking that what I had sucks, and I needed better. So, yeah, I'm in it now. And I don't think it's going badly for me, either. The sketch I did of Rhea is probably the best work I've ever done. I was very very pleased when Rhea liked it, so...I also might be a little more attached to external validation than I thought, which is probably not a positive thing.
Anyway. I survived another year, had new experiences both wonderous and awful, and learned lots about myself. So, you know. Yay me.
posted by Craig at 6:07 AM
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