A few people have commented that my posts are overly positive & asked for a dose of realism.
I prefer narrating a positive story - bc this career and my academic family have gone me more - than I have given it.
But I’ll respond to the request.
So a few challenges and negative stories.
I’ve made many missteps, where I said & did dumb things - esp, after staying too long at a conference reception.
There was getting to close to a student, so I could not effectively advise them, and failed to see they weren’t progresssing - note this does not imply hanky panky.
There were bad interactions with administrators - like the one who shortchanged me of three months admin salary - bc I was too busy learning to be a single dad - or the one where I told them they were making bad decisions (oops!) - and was punished for it.
There was appointing a ‘volunteer’ who used the position of trust to shamelessly promote their career - who is now an administrator somewhere. Bc I failed to do due diligence, I feel some how feel badly for the people stuck under their supervision.
There were even more bad administrators - who reneged on paying agreed upon a six figure bonus for research productivity - which weighed into moving schools. #people
I have plenty of tales of dumb moves by me and by others.
But here is the thing, we can pick which stories we share & how we want to narrate tales.
I could choose to make my narrative more destructive - but what would be the point?
For me, dwelling on the negative became discouraging & demotivating & debilitating.
So I took a step back. I made a life pivot.
Rather than focus on the mistakes or failures, I choose to share my lessons learned.
It took twenty years of mistakes and grumbling to see how adversity helped me improve.
I’m a better, more balance person for having suffered a bit, reflected on how to do better, and sharing how adversity made me better.
It’s not simple & it takes a conscious effort.
I’m not perfect - I still grumble - I have lingering grudges against deserving people - a outstanding apologies owed to deserving people - and I keep working to get better.
So, as you read my posts, do not think my experience is without challenges, nor that I think I am perfect, I am well aware of my mistakes & flaws.
I am also well aware that academe is far from perfect.
But. It also has an awful lot of good to it.
Also, know, I choose to craft a positive narrative of lessons learned & steps we can all take to do better - bc I know that is the path to crafting a better academe.
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