Something I realized today as I was accepting my courses for fall: this will be my seventh year of university teaching. I taught my own courses at BYU for two years as a graduate student (and was a TA for two years before that). When we moved here for Neil's doctorate, I casually contacted the English department about the possibility of teaching and was offered the chance to apply for a full-time position. While I passed on that, they hired me to teach without even an interview, based on my prior teaching experience and grades. This will be the fifth year I've taught here--at one of the top schools in the country. The department has been so incredibly accomodating with my desire to maximize my time with the children and has been so supportive of our family.
Little did I know that my humble master's degree would prove so fruitful--when I prayed about graduate school and was directed to English (not law or business, as I had planned all through my undergraduate years), I was so confused, and quite frustrated (make that really upset, actually). Seven years later, I feel so incredibly blessed by my opportunities. I know that many women balance part-time law/business practice with stay-at-home motherhood, but this has been so perfect for our family, especially while Neil is in school. Yet another testament to me that the Lord truly knows what He's doing.
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5 comments:
I think it's funny that you consider a masters degree humble.
it's certainly humble compared to what you or mary beth are during. or ruth.
Let's see. You got a masters in 2 years, while you had an infant, while teaching, while helping me with my undergrad stuff, and you were still waiting for me to finish.
I have been grad schooling for 4 years now and I still don't have the equivalent of a masters.
You are much better at this stuff than I am. If I can't graduate soon, I may just become a hunter/gatherer.
What are you teaching this Fall? (and while the image of Neil in hunter/gatherer apparel is intriguing, I think you'd need to live in a more temperate climate--might as well finish the Ph.D)
Actually, if we're going for accuracy, the only reason it took two years is because I was waiting for you to be done (hence the fact that I took only one class my last two semesters). But that meant I could keep teaching.
Also, I thought you were hunter-gathering already. Where's my side-of-the-road asparagus, huh? Some provider...
Mom, I'm teaching two sections of tech writing online. (I asked for a single section of business writing, but they called today and asked if I'd take on two of tech writing instead.) I miss the classroom adrenaline, but it's getting too hard to schedule in that set early-morning time with all 3 kids. So online is actually a really nice way to do it, since I think otherwise I'd be quitting entirely. Which is another way that the department has been awesome, since they specifically asked if I'd try teaching online in consideration of the fact that I want to be home as much as possible.
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