Job Hunt: Infinity

In 2015 when I attended the national NASPA conference, I took down some thoughts for me to blog about later. One of those bullet was: Why are we here? What are our motivations? What do we want to gain? Are we considering our motivations when planning our days?

My last tweet was April 29th. Well, the last one you probably saw, because I did respond to one person who tweets mainly about baseball and hockey. He's also our local Single A baseball team radio announcer, you likely don't follow him. Anyway. I took part in a conversation that I found really interesting. It was also full of assumptions. So, I did what I did in grad school: I challenged those assumptions. I treat Twitter like a giant grad school class. I respect you as a person, I probably follow you for a reason or follow a conversation for a reason, and if you're participating it's probably also for a reason. So, if I disagree with someone in a conversation, it's likely that I don't actually disagree with the person. I probably disagree with their opinion/answer/tweet. I might even agree with whatever was said, but I'm trying to poke holes into it so I can learn more about it. I like to consider things in their entirety, and I believe that your idea...

I have a jumble of thoughts inspired by a few different conversations on Twitter the past few days. They're a loosely linked, so I figured it would be easiest to just get it all down in one post. Let's see if anyone can follow this mess... Opinions Twitter is a place where we share opinions. Sometimes they're part of a larger, planned discussion. Sometimes one person's thought(s) can cause a flurry of ideas and conversation. We share a lot of opinions. Some people share opinions as if they're facts or as if their experience is the only experience. Anything else is wrong or nonexistent. X is the only way to find a job. Y is the only way I can do Z to be authentic to myself. Going through A and B is the only path to take. My problem with these: everyone's path or story is true to them. We can't devalue someone's path because it's different. My favorite ones have to do with valuing our knowledge and skills: If you don't identify with X, you...

I haven't written in a while, and I'm not sure why. Back in September I read a great blog post by Lee Skallerup  on why she hasn't been blogging at the same rate as before. I agree with many of her points: I'm still learning a new position, I'm not as angry or frustrated any more, and I'm generally content with my new job. I still have a lot of thoughts about higher ed, and I think there are some great things out there in the higher ed and student affairs world. I'm just tired of the noise of the mainstream higher ed world. I haven't visited Inside Higher Ed in weeks (with the exception of finding Lee's post). I haven't been to the Chronicle longer than that. One of the reasons is that I'm bored. I'm bored with the focus on professors. Of them being "over worked" and "under worked" and the "horrors" of the tenure track and the public beatings of adjuncts. I'm tired of the bickering, of research vs teac...

As this year comes to a close, I want to share some reflections on 2013. I’ve worked hard to make them positive. Some of them were harder than others to make positive. I’ve also added in a few “hopes” (not resolutions!) for 2014. This isn’t an exhaustive list (nor is it in any particular order), just some of the items that made 2013 the year it was. I miss using my brain, but when I started reading for fun again I remembered what it was like to relax. I hope I can continue to make progress on and time for things that make me happy. The universe talks to us, we just have to listen and be brave enough to take the jump.  I’m hoping to listen to it more. I still love watching student succeed. I might not be a professional in Student Affairs, but I love the field and the work we do. I love the change we can make in this world. My husband is a kind, hard-working person who cares a lot about me. We’ve had a seriously questionable year, but we’ve made it through it. We joke ...