September 2015

A Season of Change

In April of 2015 I quietly accepted a position for a faculty member at Harvard University. It was to tackle the project of her CV which had not been updated in more than a year. It was a part time position that I held along with my full time position in the defense industry and I managed to juggle both these and my education and family life. 

As the months progressed I would begin to pick up more responsibilities with my new position, I started keeping track of her corporate statements, calendar and complex travel arrangements. I still managed to juggle my primary job, my education and my family life.

By July of 2015 I began to doubt my ability to "do it all" and at that point I wasn't even trying to juggle classes. Just the two jobs and family. However, it was at that time when I was asked to participate in one of the greatest assignments I have had the pleasure to be a part of:

My professor had just written a new book. 

Before publication it would require a series of proofs.

I was asked to proof the book along side her.

It was intense.

It was challenging.

I completed a first, second, and third pass.

The hours were staggering. The deadlines tight.

But we did it.

And it was an incredible experience!

This is the result of that challenge:

Where I Went From Here

I was struggling to hold on to everything and I knew that it was going to come to a head when fall classes started. It was too much. A decision had to be made. I would either have to be hired full time by my professor... or they would have to let me go. 

I had no idea which way it would go. I waited and continued to work doggedly at both of my jobs. In September, the decision came. I would give my two week notice to the company I had worked for nearing ten years, and make the leap to higher education and work for Professor Randall full time! 

It has been four months now. And the work has continuously increased in quantity and complexity. I have built a website for her new book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs. I have tracked a multi-city book tour of which there is no end in site and it has indeed been a tremendous experience. 

I have struggled along the way as one does when learning something new. I have made mistakes and some of them embarrassingly simple in hindsight--but I have used those mistakes to push ahead and become better for them. 

I am reaching for the goals I have already set for myself.

And I have never waivered.

I have never given up.

Because goals are not a project, they are a process!