Hello, my name is Ryan and I’m a defunct adjunct. I’ve brought it all upon myself.

In addition to being an adjunct at NMC, I have a full-time gig at a local Internet hosting company in Traverse City where I host daily webinars teaching people how to create their own websites. I also have a loving wife and two small children. And I volunteer. And I rake leaves – a lot of leaves – because it’s fall in Northern Michigan and that’s what people do here. I have a tendency to over-commit myself and taking on a 4x4x16 blog challenge towards the end of the semester was the tipping point. Something had to give last week and it was my week 3 blog. I hope to make it up this week by posting twice.

To be fair to myself, I return emails promptly, grade and return assignments quickly and I’m prepared everyday. Neither my students nor my department chair seem concerned, so I think I’m keeping pace. Perhaps I just feel like a defunct adjunct because I’m juggling so many things it makes me feel crazy. Either way, I’d love to get perspective on this from anyone out there who might be reading this. Are you an adjunct or even a full-timer taking part in a similar balancing act? How do cope? How do you maintain sanity?

I’ve got some choices to make. Simply put, I work too much. I’m absent from home too much, but I love teaching too much to walk away from it (I tried once). I’m not married to the Internet gig, but being an adjunct doesn’t pay the bills. I need to compromise. Any suggestions?