Time to Call it Quits for the New Year

Now that I am moving on to the next chapter of my life, I have decided that this blog will come to an end. After all, this blog began when I was at the beginning of a PhD programme and the updates have become less frequent, to almost like one year ago! Moreover, now I am moving into a phase that could neither be defined by academia nor post-academia. For now, I consider it as a probationary time out of professional academia (but not scholarship), given that I have deliberately pulled myself out of the academic job market since early Nov. Even before that decision, I haven’t been focused much on that market (barely applying for anything), given my preference to get what I need to do done than writing endless cover letters or whatever not for work that may remain a mere pipe dream). I salute those with the stamina for such enduring such a lifestyle  but that is just not me. Moreover, sticking to a single discipline has never been my forte – however interdisciplinary one thinks oneself to be, the call of the discipline is always the strongest for even seemingly interdisciplinary folks.

This one year will be the time to work out what I could do to achieve my goals (without all that rushing for nothing pace of life) while finishing up the stuff already on the plate. My current academic contract, it seems now, will end by Dec 31, 2016.  This does not mean that I might not end up working in higher education – although I probably will not identify as a professional academic, especially not on social media – in some capacity in the coming year if that becomes the most expedient short-term move. What I am giving up is the lifestyle of an academic, a life that dogs you into your vacation, and fuels your gossips and obsessions. Instead, I would like to live more, and do more, for the real world (and not just move around a narrow herd), and one day, move into doing things in my own terms, for myself and the world I live in, while attaining financial independence not tied to a job (from this, I learn from my late father).  For the time being, I will blog at Lateral Worlds, which is another ‘old’ blog of mine (that used to function as a doctoral research blog) to document the process. My resolution is to blog, even if only in the form of short posts, once a week.

In the meantime, happy Malidur Rasul, Hannukah, Christmas, and may the coming new year not be another blur.