Ye Giant Life Update
I would have posted bits of this earlier, but weird shit happened with my account. LJ tech said they couldn't rescue my account from said weird shit, but then apparently did so. Would have been nice if they'd then notified me that my account could be updated again.
Anyway, the actual post:
I feel bad for having kind of dropped off the face of the earth for the last few months. Life has been crazier for me than it has ever been, and that is no exaggeration. My circumstances have changed drastically in a number of ways, some good and some bad, so this is Ye Giant Life Update.
General:
2013 can go hang. This has been an absolutely awful year. I have had a serious head injury from which a full recovery may never happen, have known 9 people diagnosed with cancer, and another 18 people I know have died since the new year. My health has been bad, my career has shifted in ways I never saw coming and didn't particularly want. However, things are now looking up, for the first time in about eight months, so I'm choosing to focus on that as I move forward.
Career:
So this is the big one I didn't have time to post about, and now it's resolved.
I lost my job in May. My school (specifically, asshole supervisor W) screwed me over spectacularly and set me up so that not only did I lose my job, I was also unable to transfer to any other school in the district. He then blacklisted me, which is illegal in my state and about which I am currently investigating the possibilities of punitive legal action. Unfortunately, they managed to do it in such a way that me losing my job because of my health (and I even have it in writing that this is why I lost my job, even though I completed my duties in a satisfactory manner and stayed within the leave limits guaranteed by FMLA) was just barely legal. They didn't fire me; they cancelled my program. I feel very strongly that I deserve better than this kind of treatment after ten years of service, but apparently the administration felt differently. By the end of the year, it was made absolutely clear to me that I was no longer welcome at the school, and that association with me was not professionally healthy for anyone. Oddly, this was only at the school level; I continue to have support from the county level, even though I no longer work for them.
On the upside, I have a new job I am absolutely loving. I've moved one district to the west, in terms of employment, and I've been hired once again to resuscitate a dying Latin program. This one actually covers two schools, a middle and a high, and so it's actually shockingly similar to the circumstances under which I was hired at my previous school. But the district is very different, as is the school. I'm having to get used to working in a pair of schools rather than just one, and combined they are significantly smaller than the one secondary school I used to work at. This program is in serious need of life support, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Building programs is the single thing I know with absolute certainty that I am one of the best at. I am absolutely confident that I am right for this job, and that this job is right for me. I am already absolutely in love with the high school in particular, and it's going to be an awesome incentive to build the program so I can become full-time there instead of having two schools.
This may also result in us having a new address as of somtime in summer 2014. We'll see; we're hoping to buy a house at that point, but there are a lot of potential pitfalls.
Health:
Heh. Heh. Yeah.
My health is better now than it was at the beginning of the summer, when it reached a truly worrying state. This is part of why I wasn't updating, because I didn't have real knowledge yet of what was going on, and also didn't have the ability to update people frequently enough to make talking about it online anything other than a cruelty to those who would care.
That is no longer true. Physically, I'm kind of a mess after last school year. The concussion symptoms may very well be here to stay, though they're at least much more minor than they were directly after the injury. I still have incidences of "word salad," where I can't think of the words I want, or where I will substitute similar-sounding words or similar-meaning words when I speak. Interestingly, this only affects me when I'm speaking English. When I speak any other language, I'm fine. I still have pretty awful headaches, but those are improving. I reached a positive threshold recently, where my headaches requiring my emergency medication have sufficiently decreased that my prescription can now keep up with it (true to fashion, the insurance companies have imposed an arbitrary limit that I can have 9 pills of my emergency meds per month, so I'm not allowed to have any more migraines than that). The really worrying symptom is that I've been having these sort of demi-seizures; they're not full-blown seizures, but they have some of the symptoms and they do show up as seizure-type activity on an EEG test. They only tend to occur when I'm both a)very tired, and b)understimulated.
Emotionally, I didn't realize until recently how much of a toll the last year had taken on me, but I'm getting a lot better. Being at a school where I'm already welcomed and appreciated is really helping. Having a really awesome summer also really helped. I got a chance to visit my mother on the west coast, had an awesome summer class (more on my academics in a bit), took the time to sleep and take care of myself and remind myself that I deserve that care. I've had to do a lot of coming to terms with the events of the last academic year, most spectacularly the portions of it in 2013 (the year 2013 can go hang, seriously), but that's coming along. My spirituality has been really helpful in this. I've been meditating, and I've been reconnecting with the things that really matter to me, which has actually been very exciting.
In general, this year has been a trial by fire, but I've come out on the other side, though not nearly unscathed. For this reason, I am also currently on medical hiatus from Sassafrass, until further notice. I have no idea when I will be able to get back to singing; at the very least, I need to give my lungs a chance to heal from the horrific respiratory infections I've had the last three years.
Academics:
This has been the one shining star of my academic year, and of 2013 in particular. My academic career has really taken off. I'm now fast-tracking the remainder of my coursework on the route to the Ph.D., and I expect to be done with it next summer (as in, that summer class will be my last). In fall of 2014, I will be doing an independent study which will lead to the start of my dissertation. I have an unofficial committee, and an unofficial topic, which will become official and more precise over the course of the next year.
I may get published. My professor from my summer class urged me to get my final paper published after some revision, so I've been working on that and sending it off to various classical journals. I will let y'all know more about that when I know more myself. I also have a possible translation project for which I may apply for a research grant, to fill some serious gaps in the scholarship and interpretive work on Ovid's Heroides.
I had an awesome course on Caesar and translation theory this past summer. This fall, I'm actually taking two classes, plus an unofficial third, and I'm incredibly happy with the way it's all going so far. I'm going to do the same this coming spring, as well as continuing work on my comprehensive exams (I passed the French reading exam this past summer).
...so. Lots of changes. It's been really hard, but things are looking better now than they have in a very long time, so I have high hopes for the next few months.
Anyway, the actual post:
I feel bad for having kind of dropped off the face of the earth for the last few months. Life has been crazier for me than it has ever been, and that is no exaggeration. My circumstances have changed drastically in a number of ways, some good and some bad, so this is Ye Giant Life Update.
General:
2013 can go hang. This has been an absolutely awful year. I have had a serious head injury from which a full recovery may never happen, have known 9 people diagnosed with cancer, and another 18 people I know have died since the new year. My health has been bad, my career has shifted in ways I never saw coming and didn't particularly want. However, things are now looking up, for the first time in about eight months, so I'm choosing to focus on that as I move forward.
Career:
So this is the big one I didn't have time to post about, and now it's resolved.
I lost my job in May. My school (specifically, asshole supervisor W) screwed me over spectacularly and set me up so that not only did I lose my job, I was also unable to transfer to any other school in the district. He then blacklisted me, which is illegal in my state and about which I am currently investigating the possibilities of punitive legal action. Unfortunately, they managed to do it in such a way that me losing my job because of my health (and I even have it in writing that this is why I lost my job, even though I completed my duties in a satisfactory manner and stayed within the leave limits guaranteed by FMLA) was just barely legal. They didn't fire me; they cancelled my program. I feel very strongly that I deserve better than this kind of treatment after ten years of service, but apparently the administration felt differently. By the end of the year, it was made absolutely clear to me that I was no longer welcome at the school, and that association with me was not professionally healthy for anyone. Oddly, this was only at the school level; I continue to have support from the county level, even though I no longer work for them.
On the upside, I have a new job I am absolutely loving. I've moved one district to the west, in terms of employment, and I've been hired once again to resuscitate a dying Latin program. This one actually covers two schools, a middle and a high, and so it's actually shockingly similar to the circumstances under which I was hired at my previous school. But the district is very different, as is the school. I'm having to get used to working in a pair of schools rather than just one, and combined they are significantly smaller than the one secondary school I used to work at. This program is in serious need of life support, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Building programs is the single thing I know with absolute certainty that I am one of the best at. I am absolutely confident that I am right for this job, and that this job is right for me. I am already absolutely in love with the high school in particular, and it's going to be an awesome incentive to build the program so I can become full-time there instead of having two schools.
This may also result in us having a new address as of somtime in summer 2014. We'll see; we're hoping to buy a house at that point, but there are a lot of potential pitfalls.
Health:
Heh. Heh. Yeah.
My health is better now than it was at the beginning of the summer, when it reached a truly worrying state. This is part of why I wasn't updating, because I didn't have real knowledge yet of what was going on, and also didn't have the ability to update people frequently enough to make talking about it online anything other than a cruelty to those who would care.
That is no longer true. Physically, I'm kind of a mess after last school year. The concussion symptoms may very well be here to stay, though they're at least much more minor than they were directly after the injury. I still have incidences of "word salad," where I can't think of the words I want, or where I will substitute similar-sounding words or similar-meaning words when I speak. Interestingly, this only affects me when I'm speaking English. When I speak any other language, I'm fine. I still have pretty awful headaches, but those are improving. I reached a positive threshold recently, where my headaches requiring my emergency medication have sufficiently decreased that my prescription can now keep up with it (true to fashion, the insurance companies have imposed an arbitrary limit that I can have 9 pills of my emergency meds per month, so I'm not allowed to have any more migraines than that). The really worrying symptom is that I've been having these sort of demi-seizures; they're not full-blown seizures, but they have some of the symptoms and they do show up as seizure-type activity on an EEG test. They only tend to occur when I'm both a)very tired, and b)understimulated.
Emotionally, I didn't realize until recently how much of a toll the last year had taken on me, but I'm getting a lot better. Being at a school where I'm already welcomed and appreciated is really helping. Having a really awesome summer also really helped. I got a chance to visit my mother on the west coast, had an awesome summer class (more on my academics in a bit), took the time to sleep and take care of myself and remind myself that I deserve that care. I've had to do a lot of coming to terms with the events of the last academic year, most spectacularly the portions of it in 2013 (the year 2013 can go hang, seriously), but that's coming along. My spirituality has been really helpful in this. I've been meditating, and I've been reconnecting with the things that really matter to me, which has actually been very exciting.
In general, this year has been a trial by fire, but I've come out on the other side, though not nearly unscathed. For this reason, I am also currently on medical hiatus from Sassafrass, until further notice. I have no idea when I will be able to get back to singing; at the very least, I need to give my lungs a chance to heal from the horrific respiratory infections I've had the last three years.
Academics:
This has been the one shining star of my academic year, and of 2013 in particular. My academic career has really taken off. I'm now fast-tracking the remainder of my coursework on the route to the Ph.D., and I expect to be done with it next summer (as in, that summer class will be my last). In fall of 2014, I will be doing an independent study which will lead to the start of my dissertation. I have an unofficial committee, and an unofficial topic, which will become official and more precise over the course of the next year.
I may get published. My professor from my summer class urged me to get my final paper published after some revision, so I've been working on that and sending it off to various classical journals. I will let y'all know more about that when I know more myself. I also have a possible translation project for which I may apply for a research grant, to fill some serious gaps in the scholarship and interpretive work on Ovid's Heroides.
I had an awesome course on Caesar and translation theory this past summer. This fall, I'm actually taking two classes, plus an unofficial third, and I'm incredibly happy with the way it's all going so far. I'm going to do the same this coming spring, as well as continuing work on my comprehensive exams (I passed the French reading exam this past summer).
...so. Lots of changes. It's been really hard, but things are looking better now than they have in a very long time, so I have high hopes for the next few months.