christy

This is Christy. We actually met last week at our department's end-of-the-first-week-happy-hour. It turns out her office is right next door to mine and on my way out this afternoon (my official hours are Tuesday and Thursday but I was in today for some training items regarding next semester assignments in addition to some computerized gradebook things--this is all very interesting, I realize) I stopped by to say hello and get my Blip for the day. She just finished her PhD last year and was once a GTA like myself, so I know she will certainly be a valuable resource as I navigate my own craft through these choppy waters. I'm all out of nautical metaphors.

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Leah is teaching her first large group tutoring session tonight and she should be home any moment. I am quite excited to see how it all panned out! Aside from the obvious (and sweetly significant) monetary reimbursement for this, she is getting to add some more lines to that ever-growing CV. Between my own stop by the office/school today and Leah's resume-building journey through her respective educational path, I am reminded of all this importance in peripheral endeavors. It is no long good enough (or maybe it never was, actually) to just go to class and get that advanced degree. You have to teach, also, you have to immerse yourself in all those extra things beyond just reading for your own progressions. And if one is passionate about it all, as Leah most definitely is, then these things come without the caveat of burden, without superfluous pressures. So the fact that I am feeling these stresses myself (I just woke up from a two-hour nap that did nothing--nothing--to recharge my proverbial batteries) makes me think about where, down there in the ill-lit braincellars, my dusty motivation(s) are hiding.