Eight to Five

I had an amazing change of fortune as of the summer of this year.  For a long, lean six-year period, since we moved to Bloomington, I haven't been able get a job in my late-chosen profession--architecture.  I had resigned myself to the possibility that I might never work again, as the possibility of my finding a position in this field grew slimmer and slimmer with each year I didn't work full-time.  Out of sheer luck I came upon on an opening on Jobs at IU for an Assistant Architect position at the IU University Architect's Office, whose qualification requirements I seemed on the face of it to match quite well.  I put in my application in the middle of June and got an interview at the end of July.  Two months later, I got a call back for a second interview and, thanks to the good words put in on my behalf by my previous employers, in the middle of October, during a morning run, I got a call offering me the position, and two weeks later I started my job!  It was exactly four months since I first put in my application, and during that time I had quietly put it out of my mind that I would be considered seriously for the position.  

So miracles do happen, and here I am again settling into an 8 to 5 routine after a six-year hiatus.  Overall it is the best possible outcome for my professional career that I could have imagined--working in the same institution as Kirk and enjoying all the benefits and perks.  I hope for the next 10 years at least to make some contribution to fulfilling the mission of our office to Indiana University.  

I had originally intended to publish this post on last Tuesday eve to coincide with the anticipated celebration of our first female president-elect.  We all know how that turned out, and how our confidence and the 99% assurance from certain quarters was dashed to pieces.  It was the Brexit vote all over again.  How could the polls and professional commentators have got it so wrong?!  How could the ideological and regional divisions of the country have got to be so deep and unbridgeable?!  Though it seems that the result of this election will be the reality we live in for the next four years, I don't think I will be able to reconcile myself to it, at least for now.  I am not even able to bring myself to utter the name--the repugnance I feel is too great.

I know I am not alone in feeling this way.  I was surprised by a visit to my cubicle last Thursday by an Assistant V.P. of our unit, who came to assure me of IU's commitment to diversity and who told me with teary eyes that this was not the country she thought it was.