By HD Silversmith
I feel like Ms. Mentor.
No, my real name is not Emily Toth, though I hold her wise, witty words to fellow academics -- in particular, to women -- in her advice column in The Chronicle of Higher Education in great esteem.
It's simply the role that I've been playing a great deal of in the past week or so.
First I was mentoring a grad seminar in performance theory through the writing, directing, and performance of a piece of political theater for a large rally for public education last week. Despite the very short time frame for putting it all together, the students and their piece were a big success, and I think folks really learned a lot from the experience.
Then I mentored an M.A. student through the application for a pre-doctoral fellowship that was due this week. The application got in on time. Apparently there may be as many as 70 recipients across the state university system. I'd love it if he were one of them.
And yesterday and today I worked with two students -- one a recent graduate, one still an undergraduate -- who presented their research in competition before a university-level panel of judges. Their material had evolved out of a class that I co-taught with a colleague last year, and while I don't know that they'll win, the students felt really good about having their work be singled out by us and by it being selected for further competition at the university level. And for students who'd never really found themselves before a panel in that way, discussing and defending their work and engaging with others over it, I was very proud of them.
I like mentoring. I like students. A lot.
But what I haven't been doing a lot of this semester is working on my own writing, and so that's what I've resolved to pull out tomorrow. Starting Friday and continuing through Friday of next week, I'm going to crank out the revision of the apocalypse article send it back to the publisher again. This isn't about rewriting it from scratch, after all. This is about revising. Strategically, tactically, and without self-intimidation. It can be done, and my goal is to send it back to the journal that evinced in interest in it by Monday, March 22.
For a few short days after that, I'll refresh myself with a visit my beloved niece in Portland who's doing her first year in law school before I come home, at which point it will be my own spring break. No teaching! That's when I must finish the Heavenly Creatures draft and send it out by end of day on March 26.
Both pieces are challenging in their way, but I can do them. I can write each one. And I will.
As budgets worsen at my university at all levels, and as stress mounts inside and beyond departments, I have to remind myself that yes, stepping up to teaching and mentoring and service to the department, college, and university are all necessary and important things. And as I move toward my 6th year review for tenure and promotion (this happens in the fall(, I'm realizing that I have absolutely already built up a credible dossier.
So only part of this is that I must write to publish lest I perish and not get tenure next year.
The real reason I have to write is because I am a writer at the core of my professional and personal beings. It's in and through writing that I face my greatest demons and achieve my greatest victories personally and professionally. It's a simple as that.
So I can whine and grouse and complain about it, and god knows I have a schedule that even higher-ups at the university look at in sight horror and ask, "When are you able to get anything written?"
But there is an answer. This week. Tomorrow. I have the time. Now I have to take advantage of it.
Check back and find out if I've managed to do that!
