Thursday, December 6, 2007

In Medias Res #14: It seems easier to handle if you say 180 days


What sort of person blogs about their job and expects people to actually read?A narcissist most likely. Certainly someone who is self involved enough to think that their musings merit not just an audience, but also consideration. Consideration, dear reader! Which is precisely what I got last week from my supervisors.
For a moment I was concerned that possibly my supervisor was reading this blog because things were almost too perfect. It was as if they had printed out last week’s entry, and gone through it point by point. It made me glad for a moment that I had not concluded my writing with the graphic fantasy scene I had written featuring Jason Bateman and the male cast of Gossip Girl. Then I reminded myself that I’ve put up a sufficiently excellent smoke screen, and that no one could track down In Medias Res so easily. I am much like a master criminal, dear readers, in that you aren’t even completely sure I stole something from you. But I did, dear reader. I stole your hearts.
Anyways, back to consideration. So last week I vented about the lack of feedback I’ve been getting in terms of actual quality of my performance. This week, perhaps because the end of the semester approaches-perhaps because quite a few of my programs have come to fruition-perhaps because my supervisors have been sensing my need for approval- I got quite a bit of recognition. Most of this was in the form of forwarded emails from other individuals on campus letting my supervisors know how much they enjoyed some of our programming. In addition we all met face to face earlier this week, and during that meeting I was basically told that my performance is up to par. There are definitely things I can work on (mostly stuff I was expecting), but it was good to hear that I’m not completely off the rails.
Afterwards I found it much easier to focus on my work and my productivity increased exponentially. This was fortuitous as I’ve been meeting with student leaders all week to review the semester. Now I love my students, but I am sure as hell looking forward to winter break. Granted, I’m not going to be on break. We get a couple of days off for the holidays, but nothing like the month our students get. Instead, I’m looking forward to having the time to catch up on things. Winter break cannot come soon enough!
As I obsess over calendar days, I’ve been noticing that I have in fact just had my six month anniversary in this position. Six months, dear reader! That’s longer than some marriages. This pales in comparison, of course, when one considers that you and I dear reader have been together for almost a year.

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