Changes come to Cleveland during the month of May. Once the semester ends at Delta State most of the students leave and the town more or less goes into hibernation. There is actually a noticeable drop in traffic around here from May through August. At the same time, most of my faculty friends will be heading off to vacations, research trips, and/or summer school. The library will see less patrons and we will be focusing on other things such as the yearly statistics we must submit at the beginning of each fiscal year. And of course there will be preparations for Teach for America’s summer leadership institute.
So for the next few months things will be different. Summers around Cleveland are typically quiet. People like to hunt, fish, and ride their four wheelers. None of that really appeals to me. And with Delta State mostly dormant (aside from TFA and summer school) there is not much to do. With the hot weather not far away, there isn’t much I would want to do outside anyway.
All the same there are a few things to which to look forward. Last Tuesday Keep Cleveland Boring held a Cinco de Mayo pub crawl which attracted a fair amount of people. The Cleveland-Bolivar Young Professionals has held a kickball tournament in June for the last two years. Of course there is Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. I’ll also be travelling back home in August. So its not like I’ll be sitting around doing nothing. But being on a twelve month contract (as opposed to the nine month ones most faculty have) does set me apart from many people around here. When you work through the year, summer is just another season.
Graduation, as you might have guessed, has got me thinking about transitions. It has been two years since I moved here. Already someone who started when I did has moved onto another job. Currently I have no plans to do so. But for many people Cleveland is only a stop over on the road to bigger and better things. You see it in the students who pass through and in the TFA Corps members who come here for a few years at a time. Even faculty members don’t always stay for the long haul.
Speaking of transitions, this blog will soon be undergoing one of its own. After two years, I feel the time is right for an overhaul. The content will still be the same, as will the address. However I will be considering a different design and perhaps a different hosting platform. Stay tuned for more news and feel free to leave a comment below if there is something you wish to see me do or implement.
