The first month of being a faculty member was one of the most difficult months of my life. Changing jobs is always hard, but going from post-doc to faculty is a promotion without a well-defined manual. The federal government made things extra special by creating a new DOE young investigator award program, but placed the deadline on September 1, 2009. A number of us thought it a little odd, if not downright frustrating, that new faculty were expected to hand in a proposal for a lot of money (over many years) in such a short period of time. That first year, you’re trying to establish your research program and get ready to teach. The first month is all prep, in unfamiliar territory, for a journey that at first has no clear path.
After my summer of work at CERN (and a subsequent two-week coma), Jodi and I stepped back into a normal work day. We’re both teaching now, just one course each (since we have research to do as our primary effort). We buried ourselves in prep work during the week before classes. This year, classes started on the Monday after the students moved in, so the semester came fast and furious. We’ve been busy working on proposals, big and small, and getting up earlier to commute in for our morning teaching. Meetings are interspersed with office hours, and research is taking a small back seat this week until we get settled in classes. It’s the typical beginning of a semester.
The start of the second year has been much better than the start of the first. We know a lot more people than we did last year. We feel a lot more like part of a community, both in our department and at the University. We have footing, something we didn’t have a year ago. We have ambitions and goals. The DOE early career award program has shifted to a proposal due date in November. And most important of all, we better understand just what the real lives of faculty are like and are taking advantage of the benefits while managing the surprises.
I’m very happy to be teaching again. That said, I am also eager to stabilize my schedule so that I can turn a lot of attention back to my research. I can’t leave it for too long. I crave the classroom, but I have a deep hunger that rages inside when it comes to tearing at the mysteries of the cosmos.
