The pressure of work...

There's nothing particularly new in my life these days, but I think it is worthwhile to write about some things that have been kicking around in my life these past few weeks.

I am busy preparing for the two new classes I will teach this Fall. I have undoubtedly stretched myself thin by agreeing to teach a second course on Co-Occurring Psychological Disorders at the Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. I already teach the Group therapy course to graduate students in counseling, and the out-going dean (who has become a good friend of mine) suggested that I teach the second course as a way to show my range and abilities as a teacher.

The second new course I will teach this Fall is at Concordia University. There I will teach an Introduction to Psychology course to undergraduate students as a part of the core Liberal Arts curriculum.

Things will REALLY get hairy in January 2014 when, addition to these courses, I will add a fourth course in mental health counseling for undergraduates at Concordia. At that point I will be teaching four courses at two schools and carrying a full counseling load myself.

I was quick to agree to do these new courses because I feel that such a commitment will show my loyalty to the schools and perhaps put me in a good position should a full-time professorship open up at either one. And, to say the least, I could use the money. I know there is a full-time, tenured job open at Concordia, and I think the offer to teach there this Fall is part of a tryout for the position. There is no guarantee, of course, that such will ever happen and colleges are notorious for using up part-time faculty to teach vital courses with the tenuous promise of full-time employment. But, I am doing both anyway. Such a decision has placed a big burden on me this Summer because I need to construct the Hazelden course from scratch, and my obsessive attention to detail means I am trying to get the bulk of lessons done in advance. While I've taught the Concordia Intro course before at other colleges, I need to make fundamental changes in the course structure because it will be taught twice a week - my existing lessons are designed to only teach the material once a week so the material must be broken up and re-assembled for this course.

So, instead of kicking back this Summer, I am chained to the computer and hammering out course material. All this in addition to teaching an Introduction to Psychology class to inmates at the local maximum security prison for the Summer and holding down a full clinical counseling caseload.

Of course a reasonable person would ask why I am pressing so hard at this. The answer is simple: I need to transition to a teaching job as soon as possible as my counseling career winds down. It's no secret at my existing job at Hazelden that teaching at the Graduate School would be a first choice for my work. They know it and actually take pride in knowing that one of their counselors would become a professor there. I'm not necessarily prepared to jump ship should a teaching job open at Concordia...I would need to negotiate such a position given how I would be taking a pay cut to do so.

Regardless, knowing that I cannot ever really retire, I need - at the age when most people are looking fondly over the fence at the pasture of retirement - to press hard to prove myself so I can get work in my old age. I am not alone. Recent studies by the AARP show that more than a third of all households headed by a Baby Boomer like me can never retire and will need to work for as long as they can into their old age. The economy, lack of a pension, and rising rental costs all conspire against an aging person these days and this academic activity is my response to it.

But, through it all I realize I am tired. I will not be able to press like this forever. In fact, I see this push this year as perhaps my last attempt to assemble a teaching career. I know I will not be able to do this as I approach 70 years old, so I am making hay while the sun shines. With any luck at all, I will be teaching full time at this point next year. Without that luck I will need to cut back at one of the colleges and consolidate my energies into perhaps a couple of the courses. And, I will need to re-double my efforts at my counseling job to ensure I am still meaningful there (It's perhaps coincidence that Hazelden is considering a wholesale revamping of the outpatient counseling program and my job in it for the Fall of 2014...perhaps another signal that the year may be a turning point in my career.)

So it is that I plod onward and upward. Every day I am grateful that I have such problems. I am clean and sober and able to face the challenges my life brings to me. I have a program of recovery I still practice every day. And, I have a foundation of love with my family and friends that helps me get through all this. Who could ask for more?

All the best,

Roger W.