mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be academics

Chez Durrett, we find ourselves really, really wondering what this month of March will bring. You see, Tim is on the job market for professorships starting fall semester 2011. This is our second go-round with the whole process- last year was a bit more of a let's-see-what-happens, this year is more serious. And wow, it's quite a process, starting in September and moving through advertisements, applications, phone interviews, campus interviews, offers and haggling and negotiations. I think so far he has applied for around 30+ positions. The competition for these jobs is just incredible. In terms of difficulty of landing a spot, I would rate a tenure track faculty position at an R1 university at somewhere between NFL quarterback and President of the United States. Tim has had some great successes in his research during his postdoc at MSU but the whole process is so competitive that the outcome can be rather unpredictable.

And so, it hasn't gone quite how we had hoped, in fact, it hasn't even gone how we expected. Our main goal had always been to be near family- that is, closer to Wisconsin or at least not further away than we are right now. But at the moment the most likely outcome would have us moving a good long drive away from Madison. There are other possibilities still remaining, but I would describe them as doors which are 95% shut. And then there is still the possibility that nothing will work out and we will stay in Lansing another year and repeat the whole job market dance for a THIRD time. Wowzers. (I hasten to add that Tim is welcome to stay on at his postdoc at MSU so we are not at risk of being without income if that did happen.)

We're struggling to know how to pray in this situation- should we pray to feel reconciled to moving far away, since that really seems how it will turn out? Should we keep praying relentlessly for a miracle in the case of those 95% closed doors? Mostly I just pray something like "HELP!!" and "can we please have the answer sooner rather than later" because the suspense is killing me.

It's likely we will get some more definite news in the next few weeks although it is also possible that this thing could drag on til May! (in fact, last year Tim got a call for an interview in late May- at which point I was too pregnant for us to seriously consider moving- but it goes to show how this can go on for months and months) I'll be sure to share whenever we know if and where we will be moving.