Moving to the Tenure Track

A week from now, I'll be beginning the next chapter of my teaching life. In some ways, it won't be that different from what I've already done. It's not the drastic change that I experienced going from teaching to administration. A week from now, I'm back on campus as an Associate Professor on the tenure track, not as an adjunct, not as a year-to-year lecturer.My teaching load will be lighter: 4 classes instead of 5. My service load will be heavier, as I didn't have to do committee work in my previous incarnations at Spartanburg Methodist College. I will keep an eye on tenure requirements which are not onerous.When I was in grad school, I wanted a job like the kind I have now, as a faculty member at a small, liberal arts college, the type of undergraduate school where I earned my BA degree. Almost all of my fellow grad students who weren't on the Creative Writing track wanted that. One of our Victorian Lit professors sneered at us for wanting "a unicorn" of a job.I assumed I wouldn't…