I’m here.

The academic job market is a little odd. Ads post in the fall–usually September or October–with deadlines toward the end of the semester, and then invitations for interviews during January and February.

And then that’s it, until next year.

I was at my last job for about eight years, and I think six or seven of those eight years I spent on the job market with varying degrees of seriousness.

Before that, I was on the job market, for another four or five years as well.

All in all, I have been looking for a job pretty much every year for the past thirteen years. That’s longer than two of my three children have been alive.

So now the job season is upon us–and here I am: at a university where I’m happy teaching, and in a part of the country that I absolutely love. And it feels good.

I have been after the next thing for a long, long time. And what’s odd is: now that I’m here–it feels perfectly comfortable to accept that I am where I want to be.

Sure, I had a bit of an existential crisis not too long ago, but as my born-old son so rightly pointed out: it was a passing thing.

I’m here.

Now.

And I’m good with that.