Each semester, I begin with the best of intentions. I will spend hours a week prepping for my courses. I will create and maintain a strict writing schedule. I will only take on only one additional dissertating student. I will seek out new collaborations and meet other faculty. I will participate in a few service projects and try to move them forward. I WILL balance my personal and professional life.
The truth is that the semester feels like a large hole that I slowly begin to dig the first week of classes. My expectations are too high. I have a problem with saying, "No" to new projects and collaborations. I can't seem to get up at 5am to start writing. Article and book revisions start to trickle in, creating mini-bombs in my already too tight schedule. Students ask for my time and advice. I take on more students. The hole gets deeper and bigger.
Right when I think that the walls are going to cave in due to the immensity of the hole, a vacation comes and I find a way to start filling the hole with finished writing projects, graduate students who are on a productive writing schedule, service that is either moving ahead or stalled in discussions that I can't influence, courses that are working like a well oiled machine, and some version of work/life balance.
Right now, I am still digging that hole and waiting for Thanksgiving so please forgive me if I am lapse in my blogging.
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