ch- ch- ch- ch- changes

I've been away from this longer than I realized. A lot of mental and emotional energy has been caught up in trying to decide a direction for the next bit of time -- years, maybe. I've been an adjunct professor of writing at the Gallatin School for Individualized Study at NYU since September 10, 2001. I fell into teaching and was shocked to find that I love it. I was such a reluctant student, I never would have chosen teaching. An odd confluence of things brought me to it, on the day before 9/11, and despite frequent bouts of doubt, I've stayed ever since. The students are exhilarating -- talented, eager, daring -- but it's a part time job that can never be anything but a part time job, and that's not enough anymore. In the
7 1/2 years that I've been there, Gallatin has not hired a single full time writing teacher (not that
I would qualify, being without a PhD, a Pulitzer, or both) and the commute gets more frustrating and exhausting each year. I recently picked up a part time day job that's four miles from the house and that will go full time in January. I thought, I'd hoped, that I'd be able to keep on at Gallatin with a night schedule but I keep forgetting that I'm not 18 any more and I seriously overestimated my stamina. I was getting a lot of "tell us what you need for the spring term" email and decided the most honorable thing to do was to resign. So I have resigned. It is wrenching, and necessary. The students pay full-time prices and deserve more than flagging part-time attention.

So I've been preoccupied with that and not attending to blogposts and Moby Dick panels and such like. There is some peace in having made the decision but it was a tough road to get here. I hope there may come a time when I can go back, and I expressed that hope, and it was encouraged, so that's something. So now, I'll see what I see. And keep you posted.