So I’m plodding across the freeway and thinking how much I hate wasting 90 minutes to two hours driving back and forth to the campus when it occurs to me that what I really hate is my job.
Oops! Say what? I hate my job? Come ON! Sure, the pay’s not equitable (my new opposite number is coming in at six figures on a 9-month contract, very annoying), but it’s still a decent living and it ain’t cleaning terlets or flipping burgers. The problem is, I am soooo flicking bored!
Writing the index for the current issue of the renaissance and medieval history annual meant having to read all that stuff AGAIN. Once was quite enough. Twice was more than enough. Three times is decidedly not a charm.While a couple of the essays are pretty interesting (relatively speaking), the archival study where the author notes every single sale of every tiny plot of land in the ninth-century Spanish March, with the name of each buyer and seller, was almost as mind-numbing as the excruciatingly detailed analytical comparison of Bromyard’s Tractatus iuris ciuilis et canonici ad moralem materiam applicati with his Summa praedicantium, a lively work when set next to the endless dissection of Milton’s educational theory and practice.
The index took all day Friday, all day Saturday, half of Sunday, and all of Monday and Tuesday to complete. By the time I sent it off to one of the RAs to be edited, at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, I thought I was gunna die.
You are such a good writer that I think you should be a full-time blogger. There are just not many finance blogs by people over 30 or so…and most are about getting out of debt. I really appreciate your original content too.
For cooking: it’s easy enough to give catering a trial run. I have friends who did just that. If you “put out the word,” you can get small jobs. There are books available that tell you how much to make and how to price (I once catered something for me and the quantity info was great!)
I’ll bet you know in your heart of hearts that your current job is a wonderful thing–given the alternatives!
Check out my blog if you have a chance.
Yup, I’m totally with you. My research job has bored me to tears, even though many people envy me for having it. I’m going through identical ruminations. What I have been doing is testing out some of these ideas and working through what I really want.
For example, make some jewelery and sell it on etsy, just try it out. As academics we are cursed with perfectionism from the dissertation trauma, so I would argue that maybe you don’t need all the intermediate steps to test out jewelery. Does it have to be silver? Can you try out another material? Beads? Cactus spikes? Something made from materials foraged in the desert? Pine needle weaving?
The gestalt from your whole post is that you are dying for more creative enterprise and that the creative light that drew you into the dream of a life of scholarship and intellectual discovery is being squished by the reality of grinding academic stupidity like skull numbing meetings. Another thing might be to just *do*, today, rather than plan. Make something. Check out instructables and Makeblog, do a project. Play. It is a long and winding road, and the more you try out, the clearer the path becomes with new experience.
Yarnell? Hang on a sec – I’ve been fantasising about moving to Jerome. Never heard of Yarnell – have I been missing out?
I wouldn’t make any sudden leaps into new careers – especially with the economy the way it is at the mo – but both blogging and jewellery-making are career options that you could build up over time, no?
Yarnell! byooootiful Yarnell!
Head up to Wickenburg. Take the turnoff to Congress Junction. Keep driving past that garden spot up the hill behind it. That’s called Yarnell Hill. At the top you get to Yarnell.
This road is the back way into Prescott. It’s a way to get around the horror that is the I-17, especially on the weekend. But be aware that the road between Yarnell & Prescott is a two-laner and fairly winding in places. It goes past Peeple’s Valley, another likely retirement venue.
In Yarnell, go up Shrine Road to the strange shrine and Catholic orphanage, a very wonderful and…well, strange place. Check out the aging houses that have been yuppified as vacation homes.
Back on the main road, there’s a bakery with good stuff to eat, and also a very nice gallery.
Right – it is on my To Do list, for next time I’m kicking around in AZ. Thanks for that. Just checked out some pics – it looks beautiful.