I also spent my morning at a three-hour presentation on research administration.
And so begins my transition back into working life. Three hours today, five tomorrow, and then next week I will be employed full time. I'm excited to be working for pediatricians, for a big-ten university. The largeness of it is a welcome challenge, a welcome change.
As I think about this new job, I also think about how in the short while Zach and I have been in Madison I've grown tired of the insignificance of the unemployed. Of course, nothing earthly can make me significant or insignificant, but I'm tired of the questions people ask about what I do (or often what I study—a question which can at times dishearten me). I am glad to have something to tell them. To have something to do.
I have enjoyed my unemployment. I think, though, that I may have taken the time with a bit too much frivolity. Part of the reason we should hold jobs is so that we can appreciate the time when we are not working—the time with our families, our hobbies, ourselves—more fully. Then we enjoy rest from a place of need, not a place of boredom or complacency. We hunger for the quiet space; therefore, when we have a moment for it, we use that time more wisely and it more deeply benefits us.