Finished marking (part 1)

I just finished marking my students' research papers.  Not that many - 32 of them - it's a small class, which is nice.  I used to like big classes (indicator of popularity), but now, I've become more realistic and prefer a more intimate setting.  Now, I actually know who shows up to lectures and who doesn't!

Finishing the marking always feels like a big weight has lifted off of my shoulders.  Even though I still have their exams to do, but it already feels like my job is half done. You know, the birds are singing outside and everything just feels like summer :)

Chris, on the other hand, is still slumming it.  He's not in the education business like me, but a totally different field, Thank God.

I know academic couples are fairly common, why, some of them are even in the same department (the horror!).  But I cannot imagine that happening to me. 

Academics is a very distinct, isolated bunch...you know, by the time we made it pass the PhD and have become professors, we really only study a very specific topic.  The saying that our work is only relevant to 1% (or 2) of the population in the world is no exaggeration, I'm afraid. 

So, we can be a very lonely bunch.  But I cannot imagine going home at the end of a work day only to have more discussions on a peculiar topic that 99% of the population find irrelevant.  That is not my kind of life. No no, thank you. 

At the end of the day, I just want to be as far away from work as possible. That, I think, is normal. 

So, maybe I'm not destined to be a great academic or a brilliant researcher in my field; so maybe my last name will not signify any grand theories or concepts.......in fact, my students will probably continue to misspell my name in all shape and form......BUT SO WHAT??

I don't think I will mind.  There are just so many other things that make me happy...and that's THAT'S good enough for me.

:)