Modus Operandi

Thoughts on 2007:
I wanted to have a blog.
I feared having a blog.
I thought a blog would become a chore I would avoid.
I am successful at self-fulfilling prophecies.
Since this is the only entry for December so far, and I have merely 2 days remaining, I detect a need to catch up on my life. Determined not to use this as some casual diary, I hesitate to list 2007's happenings with resulting feelings. I think I will instead concentrate on one recent occurrence: I resigned my position at a community college.
Quitting has been my modus operandi for much of my life. Chidlhood was less than ideal in the details although above average in the aggregate. In other words, someone viewing from a safe distance would have seen an okay family of comfortable means with two bright children. Purposefully myopic glimpses would have yielded none of the damaging pathology, but I digress. Baggage from childhood and several interstate moves while an adult have made me adept at leaving--before someone or some project leaves me. I have been trying for years to change that pattern, so quitting my job was anything but frivolous. And now that I consider it, I wonder if the job had really not been quitting me over time. I came to teaching at the college level eager and willing to contribute to committees and such. The 22-30 hours per week tutoring gig was an opportunity to work with a great variety of students. So I taught part time, served in small ways, tutored, and learned. Life at a community college all comes down to this: there are good and bad in every group from students to faculty to administration. Additionally, the truly bad, be they lazy or ignorant or too self-centered to see any other world view, comprise a small percentage of the population of any group. Only when that small percentage bullies the rest of some group into believing they, the shortsighted, have control does life become unbearable.