First week of autumn

It is autumn now. The season officially changed on the first of March. You could tell it was coming, though, by the way the sunrise came later and later, and the sunset earlier and earlier. Last week, sunrise happened after we were all awake and dressed and eating breakfast. Although I do like the early sun in the summers, it is nice to be able to enjoy the sunrise without getting up at a crazy hour.

Another sign of autumn are the little yellow leaves appearing everywhere. When the breeze blows while you walk through the park, they scatter and swirl all around you. The borders of the path are lined with them. That looks like autumn.

So autumn. Here we are.

As I mentioned last week, I've started teaching again. That's also very autumn-esque. The first week went very well. I'm all prepared for the first day of the second week, too, and I expect it will go well. But I'm not prepared at all for the second day of the second week. I did that on purpose. I've been trying to regulate my teaching prep time. I will spend too much time over-preparing if I let myself. So I have consciously held back. I have time on Monday to get ready for Tuesday. Because only 10% of my salary goes toward teaching this year, but 80% of it goes to research, I should finish the research paper first, and prepare for teaching later.

But then things come up. This time, a colleague had a family emergency, and I was happy to step in to cover her classes next week. But knowing I'm teaching twice as much next week, somehow I feel twice as nervous about not being prepared -- even though I actively stopped myself from preparing, and even though I still think that was the right thing to do. Stupid brain. Calm down. Chill. Everything will be ok.

Happy autumn.