In attempt to journal and document the next year in my life I need to do some back story to talk about how I got here and what I’m going through to make plans for my sabbatical. I’ve always wanted to spend some time in India and south western Asian countries like Thailand, Nepal, Bali and who knows where else and for the many reasons. Learning the culture of cooking in these regions and following the Hindi and Buddhist practices for many years has been my driving forces.
November 2017 – The week before Thanksgiving I thought it would be a good idea to write up the sabbatical application that I wanted to take for the last several years. Discouraged in the past by feedback from colleagues whose applications had been denied, thinking I didn’t have enough funds to back the kind of trip I wanted to take, after a system office investigation where no disciplinary action was found needed who would actually grant me a sabbatical… as well as a myriad of other thoughts that kept me from asking… ENOUGH ALREADY! Get that application in.
January 2018 – Meeting with my boss… was told that everyone is supportive of my application and will get it written up to be presented to the president.Was asked to give it a few weeks to get it written.
February – March 2018 – After a series of emails from me inquiring about the process, knowing the union contract says that by April 1st the paperwork needed to be completed my application gets written up and sent to the college president
April 2018 – Application signed by the college president and sent to the system office to be approved by the system president.
May 17, 2018 – Verbal approval by the system. I was frustrated by the timing of all this as I did not get to say my farewells to my students that I was not going to see to their graduation next year.
June 6, 2018 – Paperwork finally signed by all.
What seemed a really long time (7 months) to get papers signed I finally feel like I am ready to invest more time and energy and money into planning my sabbatical. The shit just got real…
Be careful what you ask for… you just might get it.
Time to get things going….