Only 5 more weeks to go this semester.  Five.

I’m not one to wish my life away, but geez, I wish I could be done with it already.  Periodically, I have a twinge of “OMG, I can’t believe I just walked away from an administrative and teaching position that I totally had in the bag!!” But then I think of how my days have been going lately, and the twinge is quickly replaced with relief.  I have no regrets.

The biggest complaint I have about my job is the student and parent demographic.  Our institution (for whatever reason) enrolls primarily affluent, entitled kids, who actually aren’t all that bright.  The parents contact me routinely.  I think it’s shameful for the parent of a college student to contact a professor about grades or the perceived unfairness of a course.  I had one such situation that took up many hours of my week last week, until after my very blunt response to the parents fell upon deaf ears, when I was finally forced to kick the situation over to the Dean to handle.  The situation will likely get messy, and attorneys may get involved.  All because these parents can’t stand to let their child go through the valuable experience of failing at something.  It drives me crazy, and it’s a situation that I see repeated over and over again, every week I am at work.

Last week I had two other situations in which parents became uncomfortably involved.  In one, the student came to me after class to tell me that his mother didn’t think he could do the assignment.  What went through my head was “Honey, your mother might not believe in you—but I do!”  What came out was this:  “Do you think you can do the work?”  The student nodded yes.  I quipped, “Then what’s the problem?”  This question was followed by confused stammering.  All I could think about was how much more independent my little 2.5 year old Holden is compared to these college kids!

I have to say, I’m glad I took this job.  It was a valuable learning experience on so many levels.  But I am also glad to be leaving it.  In only 5 short weeks, the semester will be over.  I have 3 weeks of mandatory meetings after that, at which point Holden and I can commence our fun summer together.  We’re taking H out of his school at the end of May, and after that, the sky is the limit!  I don’t like to overschedule our summer, so we just have a 2-week period where H will have swim lessons at the pool each morning.  Other than that, we’re wide open.  Gardening, hiking, going to the park, visiting friends….that will be our awesome summer.  My neighbor and I have also made an agreement to swap babysitting one day a week.  I will take her 2 kids for 1 day, and she will take H for one day.  That way we get a break, can go to our own doctor’s appointments, or clean the house in peace, or whatever.  No money will change hands.  It’s a nice arrangement.  She too is going through a career metamorphosis, so it will be good to be able to support each other in this way.

We had a taste of springtime this past weekend, and ever since, I’ve looked out my window at the subsequent snowfall with disdain.  On Saturday H and I had our usual yoga class, and on Sunday, we went to the maple sugaring open house at Shelburne Farms.  It was warm (40 degrees!) and sunny, with blue skies.  And it’s mud season.  Did I mention the mud?

But the mud is acceptable when the sky is this blue:

And when your son is this happy to be outside:

We visited the animals in the barn:

And listened to the “kaplink-kaplink-kaplink” of the sap as it started to run:

After our day in the sugarbush, we spent some quality time at the park (it was our first trip to the park in MONTHS), and we played in the driveway before dinner.  It was a delightful weekend, and (I hope) foreshadowing for good things to come!  Spring is here in Vermont!