I don't know exactly how clear it's been here that my job has been making me grumpy for a while. It might not be the smartest thing for a person to blog that her job is making her grumpy. But smart or not, that's how it is, internet friends: I haven't been very happy at work lately.
Today I had a little lightbulb moment: the pandemic hasn't just made things harder in the classroom, and it hasn't just made things harder for students. The pandemic eliminated a number of the things that made it really pleasant and rewarding to work on a college campus, and they are just now coming back.
I spent today at the library with a bunch of other faculty. It's a recurring writing day, and I go whenever I can. Today my political science colleague Julie said, "Hey, Jamie, long time no see -- how are you doing?" and we sat down beside each other and ate our lunches together. We chatted about the perils of junior high with our across-the-table neighbor, who turns out to be researching an area adjacent to mine -- close enough that I emailed her about a possible future collaboration. Another faculty member with a personal interest in our shared area of study came up to tell us her story. My friend Laura, whom I haven't seen in person since 2019, showed up in the afternoon and we talked briefly. It's mostly a working day (and it was an unusually productive day for me today), but there's enough space for conversation to make it fun too.
It has been a long time since I wrote a giddy post about getting to work in a place where our shared mission is to advance the sum total of human knowledge, to enrich our understanding of how the world works. But do you know, it's still nice to have that shared mission, and it's nice to be able to talk to people about it in person too.
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