End of the Year Reflections, Part I

As this semester, and my year here, draws to a close, I'd like to set out a few of the things that made this place special, fun, and challenging.

Things that I Enjoyed:

• The wonderful support given to term faculty here. We are treated pretty much exactly the same as t-t folks. There is money for research, conferences, and professional development. We get offices (mine kicks ass), computers, and any other hardware/software we need to do our jobs.
• The junior faculty! This group (both officially and unofficially) supported each other consistently throughout the year and made teaching here especially awesome. We had regular meetings, very regular happy hours, and I made a lot of friends outside of my department. In fact, pretty much all the junior faculty from each department were somehow involved in this group. This is something that you just don't get at larger schools.
  
• My department supported me to the utmost. I received great letters (well, they seemed to have done the trick) and job search advice. They also mentored me in teaching and went above and beyond the call of duty in helping me balance the dissertation, teaching, and the job search. Plus they are all very nice!
  
• My cohort of new history peeps. There were a lot of us this year and we are all awesome, if I do say so myself. We bounced ideas off of each other, walked around in packs, and came up with some great ideas for "choose your own adventure-style" history textbooks.
  

Choose Your Own Adventure: Stalin's Purges
"No matter what you choose, you always end up dead!"

• The engaged and interesting students who matriculate here. These adjectives do not describe all the students here, but do describe most of them. They, by and large, do the reading, show up on time, ask questions in class, and engage with the work. It's fun to teach them.
• Living so close to work. I love it! I have never had to drive to work and I walk everywhere on campus. I have a shorter walk from my home to my office than I did walking from the bus stop to the department in CO. Unfortunately, this short commute will probably not exist in future jobs....so I'm enjoying every minute now.

There are other things (large and small) that I enjoyed about working here--this list hits the high points. Join me tomorrow for the things that rankle.