Well, we’re 12 days into February, and I am (finally) (again) posting here. (I removed the apology for not posting more frequently that was here in my first draft, as I know what the response would be. :)) Flipping the script a bit, I wanted to share some things from the other half of that proverb I love so much, “Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.”
So, this early Monday morning, here are some things bringing me joy…
- Sunshine. Finally.
- More normal February temperatures. Sarah, Engie, and I have all been tremendously freaked out by our mild and precipitation-less weather this winter. And (as Engie noted on Friday), we had a TORNADO. In WISCONSIN. In FEBRUARY. Climate change, y’all. It’s real. I’m not debating this point with you, sorry.
- (Barely) keeping up with the new CBBC read. Whew. The audiobook is saving me, but I need to find more time to listen during the week. Thank you, Engie, for making the week-by-week content relatively do-able.
- Classes are in that sweet spot where people seem to know what they are doing in all of their courses but they haven’t yet started freaking out and/or asking for extensions.
- My annual review is finished and it went well.
- I got flowers this week, yay. And they were not related to Valentine’s day. No current Valentine and no plans to acquire one for the foreseeable (or, well, honestly, past-the-foreseeable) future. They don’t last long and I don’t have a high tolerance for them, but for a few days, they bring brightness and color into my life.
- The connection between my annual review and my flowers. I’m totally burying the lede here, friends. My apologies. The reason these two things are on my happy list this week is that this was not a normal annual review for me. I didn’t want to create a post just for this topic, because quite frankly I hate boasting, but I learned last week that I have been recommended for promotion to a tenured position as an Associate Professor. This is a big step for professors on the tenure track. Experts in my field of study have reviewed my work and determined that it makes substantial contributions to the field. In other words, it’s validation. It’s been a long time coming. Fourteen (long) years, about twice as long as the average in the US. While things could still go sideways, and I’m wary of tempting fate, I do feel pretty confident saying that the recommendation has been made. What I cannot predict is whether the last 2 steps will proceed as I hope they do. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that everything becomes officially official this summer, as I hope it will.
I’ll leave you with another joy quote to start off your week, and hope that it will include some bright spots as well… “What if joy is my only metric for success?” ~Sarah Jones
Despite it all – the long hours, the long years – I still find joy in what I do. That makes it all worthwhile. <3 Go well into this new week, my friends.
Oh, congratulations! What an incredible thing that is! And so well-deserved! Bask in that glory, my friend!
Thank you, Nicole! It has definitely not sunk in yet, but I hope it will eventually (soon?). Today we get to have ice cream in celebration before a meeting, so yay for that. 🙂
Congrats on the tenure finding! Yay! It’s such a big deal in academia and I hope you’re super proud of yourself. Woot woot!
Thanks, Engie. It is a big deal… such a big deal that getting swamped even worse this week has not given it a chance to sink in. I’ll still be introducing myself as an assistant professor for a long time, I think. 🙂
CONGRATS!!!! I know you’ve worked so hard for this, and I’m thrilled that it’s coming to pass for you. The summer will be here before you know it! Here’s to double joy!
Here’s to double joy, indeed. So much fun to share the news and to be able to exhale, at least a little bit. Now, if it could just give me some magical power to get pubs out the door in rapid sequence, that would be awesome. Ha!
Oh, YAY YOU! In a past life I worked as the assistant to the Department Chair for the Sociology Department at UPENN, and one of my jobs was to put together the dossiers for advancements and new hires (Hiring assistant professors, promotion to Associate, promotion to Full), which I maintained in my office for the committee and students to review before voting on whether to recommend the hire/promotion to the Dean. It’s been a LONG time (I had that job for 2 years, (1994 – 1996), but I’ll bet it hasn’t changed much. I have a glimpse into how much work it is.
IMPRESSIVE AS HELL, no matter how long it took. My husband has his PhD, and was an incredible teacher, and he wasn’t able to get a tenure track job. A few of his cohort did, most did not. In this day and age when more and more universities are hiring adjunct and grad students to teach, and spending money instead on administration and improved accommodations/facilities for students, it is EVEN MORE impressive. Kudos, I’m thrilled for you.
I feel the same way about flowers. They are cheerful and brighten up the place, but it’s depressing to see them die. Enjoy them while you have them!
OMG, Julie, we need to talk. You were at Penn? in the 90s? For real? I got my BSN and MSN there and worked at CHOP for several years. That was the scene of my failed return to the East coast (never. again.) from 2016-2017. We probably crossed paths on Locust Walk, for heaven’s sake. I know I took at least one Sociology course first year… Sociology of women and the family? Something like that? We read Second Shift and it was an eye opener, for sure.
Anyway! Sorry for the Philly detour. Thank you. It is a lot of work, and I readily admit that I could never, ever work at a teaching-intensive institution. While I love teaching, it’s not my passion the way answering ALL the research questions is. I pitched some of the flowers yesterday when I deduced that they were making my nose drip and my eyes water. Much better now. 🙂
You were at CHOP? You took a Sociology class at PENN? What a small world! I’m trying to remember what professor taught that class, but it’s been almost 30 years…I can’t remember. Watkins? Leidner? Berezen? Someone else?
One of my best friends from junior college in California was a nurse at CHOP, pediatric oncology, though she left and moved to New Jersey just before we moved to Philly. I’m guessing she was there 91-93? Or 94? Bad timing for us, I would have loved to spend time with her there. My daughter was born at HUP!
PENN is such a beautiful campus, it almost made up for the weather. Were you there in January of 96 for the 3’ of snow overnight?
YES! I worked in the PICU at CHOP from 1997-2001, so a little later than when your friend was there. It was a great place to start out – I learned SO MUCH. And that’s insane that your daughter was born at HUP. I did so many clinical rotations there… in the world’s ugliest white uniform. Oh, and white “nurse shoes”. No sneakers, sigh.
It is a beautiful campus, and I felt lucky to be there at the start of a lot of improvements, both to the campus and the surrounding community. Although, I will say, there was an informal “line” for night-time excursions past 40th street at the time. (We did go to the Acme on… 44th, I think? as seniors.) It’s SO different now – very fancy. Do you remember the diner that was on University Ave, kind of behind the bookstore? They had super-cheap breakfasts and it was a great place for a late-Sunday-morning “brunch”. 🙂
I have a feeling we’d have a lot to talk about if we found ourselves in the same place. 🙂
Oh, PENN memories are fun!
I do remember that place behind the bookstore, it was very close to my office in McNeil. Fiesta? I don’t remember what it was called. I used to love their tuna sandwich on a kaiser roll. I also remember a guy selling breakfast sandwiches (bacon egg and cheese) on Locust, which was ‘2nd breakfast’ during that part of my pregnancy when I was ravenous all of time. Also another guy selling the best pretzels. We left before they renovated things. We went back in 2000 so my husband could defend his dissertation, and they had started…the bookstore had moved maybe? It was a Borders. That made me sad, I liked the old school bookstore, I decorated my office with posters and so on that I bought there.
The surrounding neighborhood was kind of rough when we were there. I know it’s gentrified and fancier now, wonder about the blocks of empty row houses, are they all gone? We’d like to go back, haven’t been there since 2000. My BFF lives not too far away, down near the DE border. She moved to PA the spring of the year we moved back to CA, so we didn’t have a lot of crossover, sadly.
Yes, this is just how I remember it, too. There was also a My Favorite Muffin that sold these enormous refillable cold drink containers with flexible straws. They were probably 36 oz? My roommate and I used to go in the morning, on the way to class, to get chocolate chip muffins and refill our drink containers (I don’t know what else to call them; definitely NOT tumblers, and not “jugs”) with Diet Coke. And then we wondered why we ran out of energy mid-morning! HAAAA. Gosh, we were young and dumb.
And yes, Philly soft pretzels are the BEST. Do you remember the fruit trucks? They almost always were staffed by Asian (maybe Korean?) families, and oh, my goodness, cheap and good cut up fruit. It’s a miracle I didn’t get listeria. 🙂
The bookstore now is soulless, as is much of the rest of campus. Cavanaugh’s is also gone! But the White Dog, and apparently New Deck, are still there. Whew. 🙂
Oh, I’m glad to hear that White Dog is still there, I have fond memories of delicious fancy lunches there. I don’t remember fruit trucks, but if I had lived on campus I probably would have paid more attention. I didn’t eat much from the food trucks, though my husband used to love a turkey hoagie for lunch most days.
Fruit trucks were cheap and good, ergo, they were the perfect no-protein, no-substance lunch for poor undergrads. Ha! I miss hoagies, for sure, and when I ate meat, oh, boy, were the cheesesteaks good. I’ll just say that the tofurkey substitute is… not the same, lol. I haven’t been back since I fled in 2017. Maybe someday…
Oh, I am so happy and excited for you! All the fingers crossed for the next steps. When I used to teach at a community college back a bit ago, navigating all of that was so much (too much) and I’m just so impressed at how you’ve stayed the course and done such great things to get to this moment! Here’s to lots of moments of joy this week (I say under a blanket of snow, which is joyful to look at if not to clear!)!
All the fingers crossed, for sure. It’s taken persistence above all else. I think that’s the only way anyone gets to the finish line. There are those who sail right through but I’d argue they are the true outliers. I’m hoping it sinks in soon!
Hooray for the possible tenure – outstanding. I can only imagine the time and energy you put into your career. I’m glad that it brings you joy and I’m glad that your hard work is being recognized.
This weird Midwest warmup has been so strange. I’m bracing for what I assume will be a return to freezing temps for a bit before we move into spring.
Lots of time, lots of energy, and…no feeling of relief yet. Ha. It does make me happy but I also wish it gave me some kind of superpower – you know, maybe letting me get by with even less sleep. Ha.
And yes, the warm weather is driving me nuts. I imagine we’ll have 20s in April. Remember the winter before COVID when it was highs of 10 in November, but 50+ in December and January?
I am freaked out by your mild-like temperatures! While I’m sure it’s nice not to be freezing all the time… it’s just so weird and a stark reminder of how terrible climate change is. And we’re not doing anything to make it better! AHHHH.
HOORAY FOR TENURE! What an amazing accomplishment, friend. I’m so proud of you! I love how you totally buried the lede with that news. Such an Anne thing to do! I’ll be crossing fingers and toes it all gets approved.
Stephany, it is SO WEIRD how warm it is. And even when it gets a bit colder – like today? We have 50s forecast next week. In. February. I am not cool with this (literally).
And thank you, my friend. I debated whether to give it its own post but that’s so not me. 🙂 Here’s hoping all goes smoothly in the next steps.
Oh that sounds wonderful. Validation in things we do on a daily is always nice but this is such a milestone. I am truly hoping it will be all made official official. Way to go.
One questions popped up for me though: why was it double the time for you? Don’t need to answer if too personal but I was wondering.
Thank you, Tobia. You’re right -validation is so nice to receive, even though it’s not why I do what I do. Fingers crossed here for the official-official notice.
And, interesting that you ask about the long timeframe. The short answer is that I made some career-related choices that I probably would not make again, in hindsight, but that were the right decisions at the time. I’m hoping to get some posts up on how I got from where I was (nowhere near this kind of job/profession) to where I am. Now I just have to write them. Ha!
Looking forward to that story.
I strongly believe that the decisions we make at any time in our life are in 99% of the cases the right ones we could have made. Looking back and saying I would make a different decision now always includes the experience and learnings so it’s always not true.
So I am sure whatever your reason were are the ones that got you where you are now.
This is very true, Tobia. And yet… because some of the outcomes of those decisions were not what I wanted, at all, I still regret them. I promise, the posts are coming, one of these days. If I ever dig myself out of the overwhelming hole that I am in right now. 🙂
Anne, you absolutely deserve tenure. Look at your years of dedicated work! I am always a bit taken aback by how some hard-working people are so often overlooked for promotions (just because they’re not as good at advocating and promoting themselves – I have a slight inkling that we’re very similar in this regard). I am keeping my fingers crossed for you!!
Thank you so much, San. And yes, I felt very “seen” by your post about how you had advocated for yourself. I really recognized myself in that. I guess I think, well, I just do what I’m supposed to do. Then again, I suppose not everyone does… (I do wonder who those people are, tbh.) I suspect you and I could talk for a long time about these sorts of things. Someday, I promise! 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS! (I know I’m a little late here.) That’s exciting news, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out.
Down here in Florida, we had an unusually cool winter (which I loved!). Something about El Nino, whatever that means. But my sister is up in Illinois, and she feels the same way you do. She gets really upset because all the newscasters will be presenting the weather like “It’s so beautiful! Aren’t we lucky?” No, there is something very wrong here! Yikes.
Thank you, Jenny! I feel the same way your sister does, for sure. Something is not right here, and it’s actually Very Very Wrong. It’s terrifying to think that somewhere in WI (not sure where) hit 77 (!!!!) in February. SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES. No, not normal at all. Sigh. I hate to think what will happen as politics continues to, um, ‘affect’ our approaches to climate change.
Congrats! Maybe since I am commenting so late, by now you already know the final word? If so, tell all! I have a friend who just got tenure and we were talking today about how he now feels pressure to maybe become Chair or to go more into administration and do less teaching, and how there is an imbalance in his university too. I find it interesting and it sounds like I would hate to be Chair at it seems like you are pulled in all kinds of different directions. However, it seems like that is the answer if you want to get a higher pension when you do retire. It seems like an interesting but possibly stressful process to me, a layman.
Thanks, Kyria. I have to say, your perception of your friend’s experience is right on. It’s odd to have achieved something I’ve been working towards for so long now…and then think, “now what? what else will they expect me to do?” That’s probably going to be a (long overdue) upcoming post. 🙂
I wonder why I missed this post?! Big congratulations to your promotion! So well deserved after all your hard work! Will this give you any other role and possibly lower stress levels? Anyhow, congratulations again and I hope the last steps in the process go as you hope.
Here I think we’ve had an unusually cold winter, no extreme temperature but around freezing for long periods, usually we have it much more variable. I’m not a fan but what can we do…
Thanks, Susanne! I’m sorry you missed the post, though. It’s been up for a while… while I have not made it back to this space since. Sigh.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy about it – job security is nothing to sneeze at. That said, it’s likely going to add more to the long list of things I need to do. More students, meetings, committees, etc., which doesn’t do much to reduce my stress levels. But! I think it has finally hit me that I need to change how I am doing things. This approach isn’t working, so what will? Stay tuned… I’m trying to make a few very modest changes and we’ll see how those turn out. 🙂