Changing Your Life: Reflections on the Road Less Traveled

"It is always best, if possible, to move when one is still wanted" (Art Sandeen, as cited in Blimling, 2002, p. 34). The career arc for many in student affairs involves an uncertain journey. Finding balance between the professional and personal life can be challenging. For some, changing careers in mid-stream, an emerging trend in some facets of the American working landscape, offers possibilities. For others, retiring after a full career and working part-time in another is becoming a financial necessity; however, combining the two, changing career directions after a full professional life without retiring, is different. This article reflects the experience of one, the author, a senior career student affairs administrator turned faculty member, and explores his own professional journey - the accidents, coincidences and choices that merged into this journey of career change. It is the story of a road less traveled but one certainly worth consideration in the long arc of professional life. Graduate School and First Position When I entered undergraduate school, I had grand visions of becoming an attorney and therefore majored in history. Why? My adviser suggested that a history degree was a good preparation for law school. Besides, I naively told myself, I am good at history because after all, it is only reading books and memorizing dates. Four years later, in the law-school admission glut of Richard Nixon's Watergate Waterloo, following a lack-luster attempt at the law-school entrance exams, and only having applied to the three most prestigious law schools in my region, I discovered I was not going to law school after all. For me, as for many of my peers, the choice was simple: get a job or go to graduate school. With the Vietnam War still raging, graduate school looked particularly appealing, so off I went to graduate school, still majoring in history. What was I planning? I was planning very little. Somewhere between the many student activities of undergraduate life and a fortuitous graduate assistantship in the office of student activities, I began to think it might be nice to be paid for being involved in campus life full-time. Happily, my graduate supervisor agreed and offered me an entry-level position in student affairs. From that point, I seldom looked back, eventually committing to a career in higher education and obtaining my doctoral degree in the administration of higher education. like many colleagues in student affairs work (Blimling, 2002), I "drifted" into work as a student development professional. My Career and a New Opportunity For more than 28 years I worked my way up in the administrative hierarchy of student affairs. Eventually, I began to teach as an adjunct faculty member. I learned that I liked administrative work, but as I grew older, I found that I loved reading, preparing for presentations at professional associations, and, most of all, teaching in the formal classroom. I began constructing a plan in which I would take a well-deserved state retirement at a relatively young age and go teach full-time in a small private college. Ironically, when I had reached the exactly perfect balance of compensation and responsibility in the administrative organization, an unusual opportunity presented itself. This opportunity was an offer to teach a single course at another state institution I had often admired. The institution was only two hours away and the program was one I felt was doing good things. After the necessary consultation with boss and family, I took annual leave on a weekly basis and each Thursday drove to my part-time assignment in the mountains of North Carolina. Unfortunately for my career as an administrator, I found I enjoyed the drive, the students, the institution and the environment more than anything I had experienced in a long time. When a full-time, tenuretrack position became available the following year, I applied and was offered the position. …