On the horizon

I have managed to secure an interview at a local college for a full-time, tenure-track position. I have applied to this college three times, and this is the first time I’ve gotten an interview. It’s next week. I haven’t had an interview for one of these serious positions in quite a long time, so I’m feeling a little shaky about it.

These academic interview processes are gruelling. Of course, all interview processes are potentially gruelling, but these can be nuts. My application packet (which I submitted a month ago) was no less than thirty pages. The interview itself will be at least an hour in front of a rather large committee. For the interview, I must prepare a fifteen minute demonstration on a lesson plan and syllabus. If out of the twenty or so candidates they are interviewing, I am one of the lucky few finalists who makes it to a second interview, I’ll then interview with the Vice President of the college. If I make it past that one, I’ll interview with the Superintendent of schools. This whole process takes a few weeks, and it’s nothing short of nerve-racking. The good news is that I’ve gone through it before, and while neither process ended in me with a great job, I did gain experience, and perhaps a speck of confidence, maybe even a hint of professional maturity. We shall see.  I just hope I’m not still coughing up a lung every five minutes by next Wednesday. I really want this job.

Speaking of horizons (and, consequently, back to the original focus of this whole blog), we’re on a one-cycle break for sanity’s sake, but we do have more cycles of trying coming soon. After this month, we’ll have probably two more attempts with Mr. G before he leaves the country for over a year, at which point, we will implement a yet unknown Plan B (or C or D–not sure which letter we’ve gotten to by now). We probably should have taken a few months off during the move, but we didn’t have the heart to do it. I fell oddly okay about this because I think J and I both need to get back to that place of remembering what it is we’re doing this for–back to dreaming about being parents, potentially even back to a speck of idealism if that’s even possible. Of course, that may be as likely as regaining one’s virginity, but it doesn’t hurt trying, right?