End of the Season

It's the end of the season. Students are taking finals, graduation is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and then summer officially begins. Who cares what the calendar says, when classes are over, faculty are on leave, emails drop to almost zero - that's the REAL start of summer.


We held our last faculty meeting of the academic year - another sure sign of summer - and we won't have another one for 3 months and 2 weeks (not like I'm counting). I do love the academic year because it is so full of vitality, energy, and enthusiasm (the latter for the first 9 weeks of the semester). But today, as the semester winds down, we see students excited about summer internships, faculty making plans for travel, and of course writing.

In some ways the time between graduation and the start of the fall semester is the writing season. Every year I find myself busy with multiple writing projects. This writing season I am focusing on a new edition of my entry level textbook, and no, I don't write it alone. I discovered a long time ago it is a lot more efficient to write a book with colleagues you know and trust. I enjoy the writing, the planning, and especially finishing the book. There is a sense of accomplishment when it all comes together and you see it in print for the first time. Yes, I suppose it could be pride, but I try to hold that down.

It is the writing that I enjoy, painful as it is, and for me writing can be a slow and tedious process. What I enjoy is the research, gathering sorting, and organizing material to put in the book. It is a chance to catch up on what I see as new. It is a learning process, and I enjoy learning.

As the academic season closes the writing season opens and I have pen, paper, computer, and googlescholar in hand and am ready to go.