Peter did not get the State Ecologist position. They ended up hiring internally, which was no surprise. So now he is faced with looking forward to a year of Domestic Daddying. The position of having no job and no prospects has allowed him to do a bit a soul searching (in between taking the kids to the museum, the library, the farm, the grocery store... ok, never the grocery store... and making dinner). What exactly does he want to do with his life? Since he won't have his dream job as an ecologist preserving native plants in New Hampshire, where will his contribution be? It feels a bit as if he's been tossed back into his twenties. He has begun yearning for a PhD and was offered a position at UNH. For $14,000 a year. 50 hours a week minimum. At least three years. Thinking about what this would mean for our family gave me hives and chronic diarrhea. Thank God, he eventually declined, with the hope of taking this year to investigate ideal graduate programs and pursue funding, as well as secure his forester's license. It will be busy year, and a broke one, but at least he will have something ahead to set his sights on, something to assure him that his identity is not entirely defined by how many playdates the kids have each week and how clean the dishes are at the end of the day.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Peter's Predicament
Peter did not get the State Ecologist position. They ended up hiring internally, which was no surprise. So now he is faced with looking forward to a year of Domestic Daddying. The position of having no job and no prospects has allowed him to do a bit a soul searching (in between taking the kids to the museum, the library, the farm, the grocery store... ok, never the grocery store... and making dinner). What exactly does he want to do with his life? Since he won't have his dream job as an ecologist preserving native plants in New Hampshire, where will his contribution be? It feels a bit as if he's been tossed back into his twenties. He has begun yearning for a PhD and was offered a position at UNH. For $14,000 a year. 50 hours a week minimum. At least three years. Thinking about what this would mean for our family gave me hives and chronic diarrhea. Thank God, he eventually declined, with the hope of taking this year to investigate ideal graduate programs and pursue funding, as well as secure his forester's license. It will be busy year, and a broke one, but at least he will have something ahead to set his sights on, something to assure him that his identity is not entirely defined by how many playdates the kids have each week and how clean the dishes are at the end of the day.
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