![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Conferences and professional satisfaction
Until four years ago I had never attended a professional conference. Opportunities came up in college and grad school, but a very strong fear of social situations where I didn't quite know what was expected of me and that were full of unknown people kept me from even considering them. That and an extreme lack of funds.
So here I am in a job where these kinds of things are expected and, what do you know, I actually enjoy them. Whether they are for historians, archivists or even museum professionals they all rock. Spending an entire weekend with people whose paid to be professionally curious about the past is great. I still like my privacy and occasionally find that I have had enough of unfamiliar places and people, but for the most part I can't wait for the next conference.
I think it is all a part of the growing confidence I am finding in what I do. It's probably safe to say that I have always been a bit driven, existing somewhere between a good sense of work ethic and a touch of being too obsessive. But the more I do my job the more I find a particular affinity for a professional that rewards both curiosity and an innate need to create order out of chaos. That's what I want on my tombstone: She created order out of chaos.
The only 'if only' left for me right now is location, location, location. I'm stuck in the city and pining for the hills of Arkansas. I guess that good paycheck in a little addictive but I will just have to put it to work for me. No way in hell I want to buy property in Seattle, not with the inflated real estate here, there remainder of my mid-life student loan and a kid in college. But land in NW Arkansas is still cheap and only a plane ticket away.
So here I am in a job where these kinds of things are expected and, what do you know, I actually enjoy them. Whether they are for historians, archivists or even museum professionals they all rock. Spending an entire weekend with people whose paid to be professionally curious about the past is great. I still like my privacy and occasionally find that I have had enough of unfamiliar places and people, but for the most part I can't wait for the next conference.
I think it is all a part of the growing confidence I am finding in what I do. It's probably safe to say that I have always been a bit driven, existing somewhere between a good sense of work ethic and a touch of being too obsessive. But the more I do my job the more I find a particular affinity for a professional that rewards both curiosity and an innate need to create order out of chaos. That's what I want on my tombstone: She created order out of chaos.
The only 'if only' left for me right now is location, location, location. I'm stuck in the city and pining for the hills of Arkansas. I guess that good paycheck in a little addictive but I will just have to put it to work for me. No way in hell I want to buy property in Seattle, not with the inflated real estate here, there remainder of my mid-life student loan and a kid in college. But land in NW Arkansas is still cheap and only a plane ticket away.