The one with the coffee & the Jesus

So it’s Monday. I’m supposed to post blogs on Wednesdays. But according to my website, I haven’t posted a blog on a Wednesday since my birthday (which was actually a Friday at the end of May) and chances are this blog will post on Tuesday anyway.

So maybe I don’t actually post blogs on Wednesdays—I just tell myself I do.

I’m pretty good at buying my own bullshit.

Take my job, for example.

Since late 2017, I have taught English as an adjunct (part-time) professor at a local community college. I get paid a minimal amount of money for, technically, a minimal amount of work. My adjunct teaching schedule is a two-day week. So, I guess, I work two days a week, right?

Early in the summer, I began to realize that my adjunct position was really a more than full-time responsibility that involves teaching four classes, mentoring five high school teachers, leading a discussion cohort of eight to 10 college faculty on classroom and teaching topics, and facilitating Zoom and online workshops two to three hours a week for faculty across seven campuses. Part-time. Two days a week.

My two-day work week, like posting on Wednesdays, is an ideal, a goal, a good idea. But I don’t actually do it; I just say I do.

As a part-time college professor, I maintained the illusion that I had tons of time—five days each week, in fact—to engage with other pursuits like posting weekly blogs, hosting monthly and quarterly workshops, and managing offerings on two websites. When those things did not happen, I’d be angry at myself for not living up to my own illusions.

This shit just got real: I am working full-time.

So I’ve decided to ditch the adjunct life & embrace the reality (& paycheck) of a full-time job. To be clear, the unreality was not being a professor but pretending I was part-time. I am still teaching, but now I am in the classroom four days a week.

And it’s not college.

I am teaching high school.

Starting next Tuesday.

Here is where the coffee hits the Jesus

Have I been looking for a great high school teaching gig all my life? No…. Is teaching college adjunct my ultimate goal? I don’t think so. Do I have an ultimate dream job? I’m not sure.

My dream job would support & allow me to do the work I want to do. My work is to connect words through writing and share them through community.

This is what I would say I have been doing for years. But have I been? And has my job been supporting that? Am I doing it now?

I will let you know next Wednesday.