Today was Day 1 of my new contract year, which means that I really, truly, in all of the official ways am now a tenured associate professor. It feels mostly like yesterday. The to-do lists are longer, not shorter; the obligations and far overdue deadlines are still the same.*

But it’s a position of power and strength and it has brought changes. I can assert and have and will continue to assert on behalf of others who are not in the same position that I am.

Libraries have very firm hierarchies. Add the tenure ones onto that and it’s a very interesting play of power dynamics. But I remember what others have done for me, and it is my goal to do as best I can for those not in my position of strength.

And maybe to get this to-do list to stop hemorrhaging.

 

 

*Dear Everyone I Owe Things To: I’m this close to being done with that document. Promise.