Well, it’s official.  The wait is finally over.  My job search is complete.  I am the newest faculty member of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Department of Music.  More than anything, more than happiness or joy or elation, the biggest emotion I feel right now is relief.  I smiled a lot when I accepted the position, but the big sigh of relief I let out afterwards is perhaps the most memorable reaction.

It’s been a strange process, this whole getting-a-job thing.  I was so excited last fall because it seemed like just about every school out there had an opening and my chances of landing a gig were great.  So I applied to numerous places, thinking I had a shot to land a pretty good job right off the bat.  But as the school year wore on, and I didn’t hear from anyone, I started to get a little worried.  There was a little lull in job openings, but kept my eyes and ears open, sending out my materials when I could.  Then, one weekend, out of the blue (while I was in Maine with Amy, of all times!), I was forwarded a job posting for a position up in Massachusetts.  “Lowell, MA??” I thought.  But I looked it up and it sounded great, so I sent off my materials.  Lo and behold, after a couple of phone interviews, they wanted to see me live and in person.  After scrambling for two days getting together a lesson plan, I flew up to Lowell, gave my teaching demos, met with the Dean and the search committee, flew back to Tally, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Now, it was only about a week and a half that I waited to hear from them, but it seemed like much longer than that.  I thought I nailed the interview, and since their school year was coming to a close, I knew they didn’t have that much time to interview other candidates and needed to fill the position.  Plus, I’m an impatient person by nature: I wanted to know, and I wanted to know ASAP.  So I waited (not so) patiently until the phone rang last week.  Awesome.

I think the most relieving aspect about this job is that it’s tenure-track, so I won’t have to go through this whole interview process again at least for a few years.  *WHEW*  The way I see it, I got lucky.  Very very lucky.  UML was looking for someone and one of the profs just happened to be talking with a prof at FSU.  My name was among those mentioned, and a month later, the job is mine.  The saying goes, “It’s better to be lucky than good.”  Amen.  I mean, I think I’m pretty decent, but in this case, Lady Luck was on my side.

Go River Hawks!!