The best laid plans of mice and men…
I perpetually outline different plans for my life or as my mom likes to say I plan my life out in semesters. I do; it’s true. I love to plan. If someone were to take a look at my calendar they might notice the colors (because I tend to color code activities); they might also notice I tend to plan out things based on the hour of the day. 8:00 teach. 9:30 print out CCC work. 12:00 eat lunch. Sounds crazy (I know), but it works for me and keeps my stress level at bay. It really works for me as I tend to be a very busy person with a lot going on mainly because I like to be busy—at one point in my life I was coaching two swim teams, teaching six different composition classes, taking one graduate class, and selling jewelry...now that took some creative planning on my part! So it should come as no surprise that I’m not really spontaneous nor do I like it when my day doesn’t go accordingly to plan (or my month for that matter!). I’ve had to learn to adjust, I must admit, so that I don’t go crazy since as we know life doesn’t always work as we’d like it to.
One thing that this process of job seeking has taught me is to try to go with the flow because let me honest—no matter the level of planning—nothing goes according to plan. Good example: I made a chart of the schools I applied to/will apply to and color coded based on where I want to go and where seemed like a “good” fit. Well I might as well have thrown the color coding out the window because none of it has worked out. The schools I thought I’d be a perfect fit at apparently didn’t agree with me as I haven’t gotten interviews at them. But the schools that I have interviewed with have been very pleasant surprises. The last interview I had was particular awesome for several reasons: (1) the people were so enthusiastic and fun to talk with, (2) my research aligns very nicely with their English department’s mission, and (3) I’d be able to teach some kick ass classes (oh, yes even one possibility of teaching a class on vampires ;-). Thus, my plans are changing. I’m learning to re-adjust my thinking as to what’s important to me in this job search process (besides the obvious of wanting desperately to secure a job) because what I thought was going to be “the plan” isn’t working. And you know what—surprisingly I’m ok with it. I have had some really great interviews with some really great schools that have opened up different possibilities for me which honestly is just exciting.
Hopefully one (or more) of those great schools will want me for a campus interview, but if they don’t, I’m still open for possibilities as my yearly outlined plan has blank spots in it that are just waiting to be filled in. I tend, too, to be more optimistic than not (which I blame my mom for—she’d repeatedly sing to my brothers and me during bad times “the sun will come out tomorrow” so much so that now when I have a bad day I find myself singing it aloud or saying it out loud to others when they have a bad day— let’s just say that not everyone is as keen on the Annie song as I am), so though my thinking might be overly optimistic I still think there are going to be possibilities. And I’m going to hold onto that for a little while longer.
"KEEP SINGING!" little trivia that also fits quite nicely with you sentiments! love ya! Your Mama
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