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Does anyone else feel as though work has gotten more difficult lately? It seems as though as the academic year grinds towards its inevitable end, everything is getting busier—and harder.
Perhaps it’s the knowledge that soon—always, blessedly, soon—it will be summer, bringing unlimited freedom along with the heat, humidity, and mosquitos. Readers in normal careers—the ones that don’t get two months off every summer—probably don’t get pre-summer blues, because there’s never a break. Paradoxically, I suspect that the knowledge that I’ll have loads of free time soon makes the current slogger seem even sloggier.
Of course, it does get busy this time of year. If third quarter is the doldrums of the school year—the long, dark days of January and February, when everyone is in some form of waking hibernation—fourth quarter is the grand reawakening, full of concerts, plays, and multifarious other special events. Then it’s end-of-the-year banquets, awards ceremonies, baccalaureate services, graduations, and all the rest, blurring together into one glorious slurry of festivities and obligations.
I’ve actually been asked to speak at my school’s baccalaureate service this year, which is a huge honor, but which also necessitated rescheduling a book-signing event my cousin is putting together (new date is TBD). I’ll be posting my little sermon next Saturday, so you’ll actually have the opportunity to read it a day before I deliver it.
Regardless, I can sense burnout creeping in, as the days wear on and seem to get longer and longer (and start earlier and earlier). There’s a reason I’m writing about the toll of overwork this week, rather than continuing with the saga of my Washington, D.C. trip (the next episode is going to be awesome, by the way).
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The Portly Politico 
I feel for you. You profs get hit with short-timer syndrome every single spring and that has to suck.
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Thanks, dude. It’s always a challenging time of year, but I know I can’t complain too much. I’m blessed with a good job and lots of music students, not to mention two months of summer vacation coming up (during which I will run a couple of week-long camps and continue teaching lessons, but it’s waaaaaay easier teaching lessons when I’m not also teaching 4-5 classes a day); it’s just been one thing after another lately. Fortunately, it’s all just been work-related sloggery, no major personal or familial catastrophes—thank God!
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