Professional Development

I am at the PCA in St Louis. I presented a paper on Dora The Explorer and loved it, thought I did well, and had a lot of feedback from the audience. But, here’s the deal: This is the third conference in three weeks. I have driven to all three conferences and next week, I am presenting yet one more paper at one more conference. When I did this, I swear, I did not noticed they were all back to back. Consequently, I am at my wits end, highly emotional, and wanting to leave. But, I’ve learned a lot. Like when I was at the C’s, I learned how to do kick ass proposals. When at the CEA, I moderated for the first time, and here at the PCA, I attended a professional development seminar on putting together the employment package. They actually went from the CV, to the phone interview, to the contract letter. And it is getting close to that time of leaving the comfort of graduate school and entering the job force. I really am not looking forward to competing because I am older than probably all of the new PhD folk and that, I think, puts me at a great disadvantage. So, for the last four years, I have worked my ass off getting published, getting service credit, presenting at conferences, and doing whatever I can to make my CV more attractive. The cost: no rest.