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I don’t have a lot of time to write tonight, so I’ll try to be brief. Rather, I’ve been writing pretty much continuously for the last three days… just not here. However, a lot’s gone down in Robbyville, so I thought I might take a moment or two to catch everyone up.

I spent last weekend in Mankato, Minnesota with a few of my peers (namely Quinn, Anya, Lavinia, Matt, Karen, Geoff, and Barb) at the Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing conference. I attended a couple of interesting presentations, and hopefully even gave one myself. That is, I ~know~ I gave a 15-20 minute presentation entitled “Facilitating Conversations: Interface Design and Electronic Discourse,” and I ~hope~ it was interesting. I thought it was, but I wasn’t the one having to listen to me. Mostly I tune myself out whenever I start talking.

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Intermission (random bits):

Sam just asked me for some white-out. I told him I didn’t have any, but I did have a black permanent marker. I meant it seriously, and didn’t catch on to my own joke until he responded with “actually, that’s the exact opposite of what I need. But thanks.” Eliminating text is eliminating text, no?

Earlier I spent two frustrating minutes trying to find the word “survey” in a book’s index. After two minutes, I realized it was probably silly to look for “survey” under “P”. Course, it wasn’t under “S” either.

I’ve decided tonight that I need to write a fast-paced violin piece entitled either “Vio-lence” or “Violinse”. And then I can write a slower piece called “Violins is Not the Answer”.

Now, back to the show.
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I had a job interview this last Monday in the Graduate College (which is the college that oversees all the graduates and degrees in the various departments) for an assistantship. The cool part of the job is I’d spend my time designing and updating documents, working on the website, and so on. The less cool part of the job is I wouldn’t be teaching anymore. I realized a few weeks ago that I honestly, legitimately enjoy teaching. It was an epiphany of sorts for me. Sure, grading isn’t the coolest way to spend a weekend, but I truly like the classroom part of the teaching gig. I look forward to it. I’ve never really had a job I’ve looked forward to before (no offense or anything, Dwight).

And so now I’m contemplating leaving that job. In fact, I’m more than contemplating it. My interviewer suggested on Monday that the job was mine for the taking, barring the unexpected. I sent her an email requesting the position tonight, and tomorrow I plan to decline my teaching assistantships for this summer and next year. Perhaps it’s a stupid move to give up something I know I like to try something I think I might like, but stupid or no, I think I’ve made my decision.

The decision was based in large part on another decision I made earlier this year. Following my Master’s degree, I plan to work for a couple of years before deciding whether to pursue a Ph.D. I’ll be 24 years old when I get my M.A., and I will have never held what I would consider to be a “real” job. I’ve noticed that I have a lot of respect for the people in my program which have worked for a few years in the field before deciding to get higher degrees. Better yet, they’ve focus and determination I lack. I’ve been here six years now. I’m getting tired. I think I need a few years in the real world to help me prioritize and determine what’s right for me.

How does this new assistantship figure in? Excellent question. It will give me a year of experience doing many of the things an employer in the real world would ask me to do. It will make me employable somewhere other than a university. And, if I decide after a year or so in the real world that I really miss teaching, but don’t feel like going for a Ph.D. just yet, I can always teach as a lecturer or adjunct, seeing as how I’ll have a degree and a year of experience teaching.

To make a very long story much shorter, I’m giving up what I know I love (short term loss) to see what else about my discipline I love (long term gain). Of course, there are other things I’ll miss. The camaraderie amongst TAs, for example. I’m going to have to walk across campus just to see any of my friends (or they to see me), and if this last year is any indication, we rarely have the time to make such trips. In the end, I’m hoping this decision will teach me something valuable about myself, one way or another.