What I Don't Want

I've only recently realized something about myself and my professional goals:

I don't want to train Shepherds.

Shepherds are good people who do good work. Heck, I trained to be a Shepherd. But at this point in my life, I don't think that I want to spend my career training them.

This realization is related to this post.

Prof. Mom really wants me to consider Fourth-Choice U. She emailed me on Monday and then called me on Tuesday (yes, long distance). She's convinced that Fourth-Choice U is a wonderful school that would be a great place for me to land.

I didn't have the nerve to tell her that I just don't want to train Shepherds.

And then...

Fourth-Choice U called me this morning to tell me that this opportunity is still viable.

Their campus visits are in the next few weeks and they would be willing to fly me in if I was still interested in their position.

I explained to Committee Member (CM) that I had been granted a post-doc in TLWTMS (s/he understood how important TLWTMS is to my research).

I also expressed some of my hesitance to pursue this opportunity after the email from Prof. Snarky. CM acknowledged that Prof. Snarky's comment could certainly be misinterpreted, but explained that it was actually an expression of disappointment from a junior scholar who hadn't yet acquired "the finesse of experience within the academy." (I'm rather skeptical about this.)

I didn't have the nerve to tell CM that I just don't want to train Shepherds.

Instead, I asked to think it over and to give an answer by Friday.

But the only two options that I'm seriously considering for Fall 2010 are the TT position at First-Choice U and the post-doc in TLWTMS.

Because I really don't want to train Shepherds.