This month’s SBL Forum has a wonderful article by Isabelle Kinnard entitled “Life Without Footnotes”. In it, she discusses her decision to leave academia due to a divorce. Due to her ex-husband’s job, she found herself in a town far from family. She needed a steady income, but her year-to-year contract at the college was not going to be renewed. She ended up leaving the field.
In the article, she muses over some of the things she misses about academia and some of the things she doesn’t. I found it an enjoyable read. My own situation is similar to hers, not only in the fact that I am currently (and hopefully temporarily) not employed in academia, but also in the fact that I find there are things about academia that I don’t miss.
One of my dirty little secrets is that I am enjoying doing work that only has to meet the standards of a couple of people. In my retail job, I have to satisfy my supervisor. In my web design job, I have to satisfy my supervisor and the current client. Neither of these demand a great deal. In academia, however, I always have to think of the entire field. When I write an article or a book (or even a blog post), I know it will have to stand up to the most critical scholars. This means making sure that every claim, every sentence, every fact is verifiable and supportable. While I enjoy that kind of work, it can rather stressful.
This is not to say that I won’t jump at the chance to get back into academia. I miss the intellectual challenge. I miss the discussions with other scholars. And above all I miss my students. I will welcome my return to teaching, but it is certainly more difficult and stressful (but ultimately more rewarding) than my current jobs.