"There is no substitute for hard work."

Above quote comes from Thomas Edison, American businessman and inventor. Credited with the creation of many items, he is perhaps most widely known for inventing the light bulb. There also exist over 1,000 US patents in his name, as well as some scattered in Germany, France, and the UK. I think he definitely knows what's talking about in terms of hard work.




I was totally unprepared for what this semester was going to bring me. When I mentally prepared to come back, when I wrote my last post on Saturday, when I actually started back up at work in my office…..I still had no idea what this was going to look like. And wow, what a shock all of this is.

I am BURIED in work. So buried, in fact, that I have no right to actually be taking time out of my day to be writing this post. I am in between meetings with students right now, the time when I should be catching up on emails, writing recommendations, working on projects. I keep watching my Outlook show me new emails in the bottom of my screen and I am ignoring them. I keep adding more meetings to my calendar as students email me wanting face time. I keep adding more and more things to the piles on my desk (and my other chairs in the office) that I’ll get to eventually….just not right now. And over the past 4 days I’ve realized that my stress level has rocketed and there’s nothing I can do to change it….and that it’s probably ALWAYS going to be like this at the start of each semester. Holy shit – what did I sign up for?

I thought that this semester was going to be a little easier than others. I signed up to teach a class as something extra because I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing with my time otherwise. I am thrilled to get this experience, and I’m hoping I will be able to help/influence the 11 students who are currently enrolled, but I forgot how much time it takes to prep for a class even when everything is already outlined for you. I’ve been moving like a whirling dervish (as my mother would say) to get things completed in time and have a good grasp on what I’m teaching each class meeting. Now I have things to grade, assignments to explain, and more prep work ahead of me. I am excited about it, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely didn’t budget for all of this.

I have a major project I’m working on that’s sucking up most of my time. Maybe that’s not the best way to say it…..enveloping all of my time? Completely all-encompassing any time that I might have thought I may have? I keep catching little errors that just bother me and feel like it’s never going to be perfect – which for some people is no big deal, but for me is definitely a REALLY big deal. I never considered myself an actual perfectionist until I started this job and realized how many people around me do things to near-perfection, so bringing a half-assed attempt is definitely NOT acceptable. I’m making it harder on myself in hopes that the end result will be amazing….I can only hope.

And then there’s the matter of next year…..it’s time to decide where I’d like to be within our halls and try and articulate why. With rumors flying around our department, it’s hard to keep track of who is interested in working with what, and why. It’s turned into a more pensive time for me than what I was anticipating….I’ve starting thinking more and more about what I’m looking for out of my second year experience here and who I want to work with and FOR. Interesting developments within the department has made me think harder about everything, and now I’m trying to make decisions.

I am thankful that tomorrow is Friday AND it’s a 3-day weekend for me. I am hoping to be able to walk out of my office on Friday afternoon and not walk back in until Tuesday morning. Working on the weekend is definitely NOT what I want to do, but if I don’t start crossing things off on my to-do list it may be unavoidable….which means I should probably stop blogging and start working :)