it was so worth the risk

It’s with mixed feelings that I end my teaching career this week, at least as I have known it as such. There are certain aspects to the job that I won’t miss at all: marking (hastily prepared and bad) papers, administrative duties, and meetings, to name a few. But I will greatly miss my students, being in charge of a classroom, and the beautiful energy I feel when a class is going well. I will never forget my first Child Psychology lecture at Eastern Michigan University in 1989, standing nervously at the lectern, notes firmly in hand, when I said something the class felt was noteworthy; they collectively bowed their heads, put pen to paper, and in that defining and empowering moment, I became a teacher.

For a very long time, I considered myself a professor who did clinical work on the side, but I’ve evolved to become a clinician who teaches as well. I’ve seen so many changes in academia, some of which have been wonderful, like computerized test generation and the ability to communicate electronically, and some that have left me longing for the “good old days” of overhead projectors and transparencies. It’s time to pass the mantle to someone young and fresh, who is keen to excite the next generations about the amazing world of Psychology and who doesn’t mind competing for attention with Facebook and Instant Messaging. I am now, first and foremost, a Clinical Psychologist whose attention is solely on her clients.

The message I want to impart in this blog post is that the defining moments of life always involve risk: applying for a job, leaving a job, asking that person out on a date, actually going out on that date, auditioning for a show, taking the first step of a marathon, eating a previously “forbidden” food, resisting the urge to purge. When we risk failure and rejection, we risk success as well.

Thank you to everyone who helped me succeed as a professor for the past 21 years: Jeffrey Stern, Barry Markman, Ken Rusiniak, Bruce Haulman, Carsh Wilturner, and the Psychology Department at Capilano University.

Love,

Ellen

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