"Yes, but what do you *do*?" A new response. [Sciencewomen]
I’ve been spending the past week or two trying to get my groove on with respect to work. I scared myself quite badly with how overwhelmed I got at the end of last semester, and how quickly. I vowed to myself not to let myself get sucked into such unhealthy patterns, and then beat myself up over and over because of how often I tell myself not to get sucked in, and then how I get totally sucked in again.
However. It is a new year. So I have another chance to start over. And am apparently trying to do so publicly, as what else would a blogger do? Besides, I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I hate my job. I don’t. At least, I don’t hate it when I actually feel like I’m spending my time doing important and useful things. And I wasn’t feeling that much or often in December.
So, how to do my job differently? It comes back to reminding myself what I am supposed to be *doing.*
Over the holidays, when people at parties asked me what I *do,* I tended to say, “I’m an assistant professor of engineering education at Purdue University.” Sometimes I got questions about what that actually means, but I didn’t really realize until today I don’t describe what I *do.*
In November, December, if you’d asked me, I would have said that I attend meetings, and jump when other people tell me to. And then I would go crawl into a little cave of self-loathing.
So, early in 2009, I’m trying to clear some mental space. And to start with, I’m going to restate what my job is, what I’m supposed to be *doing.*
Ready?
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