RYS Flashback. Ten Years Ago Today. We Were Already Fucking Up.

Wisconsin Checks In, Takes Our Temperature With Something Big, and Then Tells Us We're Off Track...and We Liked It!

I feel betrayed. RYS has turned from a pithy, often hysterically funny site where professors revealed themselves to be human, into yet another mea culpa, professional development piece of crap.

Let’s get one thing straight: I hate teaching, and I could not care less at becoming better at it. Yes, I should be doing something else. Yes, I tried. But economic conditions, a poor choice of majors—and no real skills (liberal arts type, y’know)—conspired to force me into the position, and now it’s a gravy train to retirement that can’t be matched elsewhere. But I don’t have to like it. And I don’t, not even a little.

I did try. I gave it a shot. But this soul-sucking community college where the entrance competencies are fulfilled by fogging a mirror makes me miserable. It’s driven me to the brink of suicide at least once, and as I vowed not to let that happen again, I had an epiphany: It’s okay to hate your job! While 53 percent in a recent poll liked their jobs, that clearly suggests that 47 percent don’t. I’m not alone. I’ve got 4 months a year to forget about it, which I do by working with my hands instead of my head.

Still, the semesters are long and cold here. And living a lie, smiling at students and pretending to give a shit while suckling at the golden teat of government-funded higher education, is still trying, especially at this time of the year. RYS offered a humorous respite, a wry look at others who sometimes wanted to yell, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Well, that’s gone now, replaced by just another piece of corporate, worker-improvement crap that keeps telling us that we must love our work, and we must draw identity from our jobs or quit. That’s bullshit. I’m not my job. I’m me. I’m outta here.

Thanks, yeah, thanks a lot.