Time Off

My friend Jess Prosser with whom I used to do ComedySportz with in high school had one of the better outlooks on professors’ sabbatical:

“Essentially, the university pays you to go on vacation for a semester, so you head to a cabin or chateau and proceed to find the meaning of life for a couple of months, cutting yourself off from society. Near the end of the sabbatical you write some stuff about what you learned, get it published, and continue your job."

Seems simple. Seems fun. I’m more than 90% sure that a professor’s sabbatical is more intense and research focused than it is a few rounds of golf or sitting naked in a cabin the woods. The concept of getting away from it all is important to our livelihood.

You know the feeling of getting a new job, or buying a new item, or moving into a new place? There’s that magical glow or feeling. Everything is sparkling, simple, Unfettered by previous trials. Your brain starts over. Formulating a new plan for an ongoing life. During this time there are some neat by products. Maybe you get up a little earlier because of the newness. Maybe you get more work done. Maybe everything else seems perfect.

Then the tragic day comes. The scratch. When I first bought my car I was so paranoid about it getting dirty or messed up. I washed it constantly, parked extra carefully in public areas, and even got snippy at people who slammed the doors or played with things in the car (I remember having that classic feeling of getting older where you channel the voice of your dad scolding you for doing the same). The car was new and beautiful and glistening.

Then my friend RJ and I tried to move a grill, almost twice the size of my car, from Wal-Mart back to Mizzou. He and I will still get a chuckle of him riding in the back holding the hatch down while heading to our residence hall. But laughter was not the first emotion of the evening. Sadness, disappointment. The bulky, awkward grill slid from our grasp and hit the side of my car, right over the back left blinker light.

The first scratch.

It’s disappointing. You feel like this big positive perfect thing is now ruined forever.

As we work longer, the cracks begin to form. We notice the broken office light, the toilet in the washroom that doesn’t flush properly, the increasing annoyance phone call from the same customer over and over again. The cracks will always be there. From job to job, moment to moment, bad days or experiences are sure to rear their head.

I have much respect for those who have maintained a positive outlook while dealing with the day to day grind. One of their tricks, vacationing. Your boss isn’t just suggesting vacation time for the sake of expending hot air. She means it. Getting away, outside of your home, your work, your day to day life, sort of forces the most important step in dealing with the cracks...letting go.

Physically leaving your area eliminate the temptation to think or worry about that project coming up. From there your brain starts to free up some of the space it was using to worry about whatever. Then being free, your brain starts to process all of the items which were tied up in mental traffic. It’s kinda like dreaming, except you’re not picturing your friend from 9th grade with the head of a dog, moving in slow motion.

You feel freer to say things like “I don’t have to worry about my diet today” or “I’m gonna go treat myself to a massage.” As you’ve spent the time reliving a newness in your life, you remind yourself that newness is state of mind, not just a physical locale or status.

By the time you return to the grind, everything seems new. Even that pestering phone call or leaky faucet. Now the small problems return to being small. You realize that life’s problems are easily erased with easy day to day reflecting. And you have a new cache of good memories to share with friends.

So as the new year has now passed and it’s months before any type of major holiday break, take a sabbatical, for your mind’s university.

pb