Week 1: Report

So, now I'm a professor.

I've spent a week as a professor. I want to track this experience, so that when I'm looking back and deciding if I want to continue to pursue the professor route, I'll have a clear picture of it all.  And of course, for my couple of followers out there in the big wide world.

Well, there's certainly no catering going on. I remarked before how the other university I interviewed with catered me on a whole different level. I don't know how it would have been for me if I were starting there, but I suspect it would have been different. Here?  Nothing. I basically went to work. The secretary gave me keys to my office. That's about it. I've been working alone in my office for the week.

The difference between now and a few weeks ago?  Location (for the worse), focus of my energies (building courses instead of writing papers), the employee benefits (much better)... that's it. I'm still working alone in a little office. That'll change though, as the other staff comes back from vacation and, of course, when the students flood in.

Another difference is that there's nobody looking over my shoulder. I guess that's the "academic independence" thing. I mean, I have a boss, but it seems she'll only chime in at the very end, when they decide whether I did well enough to keep on staff or not. In the meantime, I am on my own. Sink or swim. I have wanted this for a long time, but it's still kinda frightening.

It did feel odd to walk into the professors' lounge.  Even if I didn't actually talk to anyone (it was empty), walking into it and knowing I'm entitled to walk into it because I am a professor... kinda fun.  Just walking the hallways too... there is something different about it. Walking around campus as a student and walking around campus as a professor, it just feels different. In a good way. I think.

If I allow myself to, I can feel very overwhelmed about the amount of work I have to do in the next month. It is a lot. And I'm completely on my own. I hope I can do this, but I just don't know.