Isn't it ironic?

There is a certain irony, a colleague remarked today, in the fact that while I got a Ph.D. partly so that my teaching schedule wasn't as grueling as when I taught high school, my first teaching job after the doctorate has me teaching, at least for these next three weeks, an exhausting 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule every single weekday (except Fridays, when I don't hold office hours in the afternoon).

Although my team teacher and I end the day con la lengua por fuera, as we say in Puerto Rico, we're both equally pleased because we have a great group of students, and each day has gone by quickly and rewardingly.

While I wasn't too excited about teaching again since I didn't get much of a break after defending, getting the Monster approved, and thereby becoming Dr. G, the moment I walked into the classroom once more, and got my show on the road, I felt como pez en el agua. Teaching is what I was born to do, there's absolutely no doubt about that.

To honor the fact that I've graduated in more ways than one from novice and apprentice to scholar and doctor of letters (well, of philosophy, of which I don't know much, actually), I've decided to wean myself from being such a control-freak this summer and instead of exhausting myself further with prep work for a class I've already taught, and a text (Beloved), which I pretty much know inside and out, I'm making notes on what I think it's important to discuss and letting the energy and the synergy of the classroom (along with what my excellent team teacher contributes) do the trick.

So far, so good. The strategy is working very well and I'm really enjoying the experience, especially since I know that once these three weeks are over I finally get a real break. That's when I'll have more than a month to tackle War and Peace, to watch Oprah and all the movies I've missed, to write a short story that I've been mulling over, and to make plans for fall.

Sometimes ironies are necessary reminders that what we have and what we want are often the very same thing.