I started this blog with the loose intention of talking about how different it is to be a faculty amongst advisors who are generally not faculty. I found myself writing words of comparison in my head to being a black man. That isn’t a very fair or relevant comparison. It isn’t even a necessary topic, if I’m being honest. I tend to write about what I am dealing with. Right now I am sitting in an Advisor 101 meeting for PTK and wondering how to discretely cross the room and escape.
I cannot.
I should’ve known what this would be. I did know for sure when the host started off with, “If you do nothing else as an advisor, make sure you sign up new members.” In that moment it became the recruitment song. It became more about PTK-org getting numbers than providing any real advisement and or mentorship. We’ve been here for 15 minutes and it’s the same song. So, I tuned out.
Now I’m thinking about writing and all of the great things I want to write and do with this blog space. I’m thinking about my value as more than someone to sign up members to fill someone’s coffers. I am a teacher. I am a learner. I am someone who has a lot to give and wants to give all of it.
I am also a man who is sometimes lost in what he wants to receive; in what he wants to do with his time. I am a man who leaves this earth to build a new world in the block simplicity of Minecraft, because I know I can succeed in that world, and I know that failure is fairly real and easy to recover from.
I am a man who has passed the crossroad and committed to a different kind of life. I am a man who will be who he was meant to be… I am a man who is learning what that actually means. I am a man who is learning what things bring him joy and what things he thinks do, but don’t.