I started writing my Grace Period series over two years. The first essay in the series was an accident. I just wanted to let people (friends, family, colleagues, and the random readers of my blog) that I was taking a year off to figure out what to do with my life. I had quit my job as a lecturer and moved to Florida. Someone kindly pointed out that post to the editors of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s new Vitae Project.
While in the hospital after the birth of my son,I received an email from one of their editors offering me the opportunity to write about my transition out of academia. So, I started writing about my year off and my transition out of academia. My year turned into two. I cataloged how I felt about what I left behind and what was hopefully in front of me.
Last week, Vitae published my last essay in the series, Goodbye to All That. I expected to be sad, but I’m not. Sometimes, an ending is just an ending, a place where we stop to rest before moving on. I’m happy to have had the chance to write all of these essays and to rediscover the joy (and heartache) of writing.
So, here are the links to all my Grace Period essays in order. I hope you enjoy them.
1. My Post-Academic Grace Period
2. How to (Not) Avoid the Job Market
3. The Hard Business of Letting Go (followed by (Non)Toxic Dreams on my blog)
9. My First Postacademic Lecture
10. How You End Up Leading a Task Force on Contingency
11. Clean Slate