One more reason why I find it hard to identify with my fellow academics is their dedication to immature behavior:
Even my adviser met the news of my exciting job with a shrug, because it is being in charge of a research center rather than the glorified tenure-track position. So he has yet to congratulate me.
But Megan, who got a tenure-track job 6 years ago in Utah? Oh, he LOOOOOVes her.
College Misery says everybody is reading and quoting this testament to an infantile worldview. Maybe spending so much time with students causes some people to adopt this childish whiny tone. Maybe academia has a tendency to attract people with an intense fear of growing up. Either way, seeing adults who are so emotionally invested into whom an adviser “LOOOOOVes” is very disappointing. I mean, if you have an exciting new job, why would you possibly care whether a person you will not even be meeting any more “LOOOOOVes” some Megan you will not be meeting either more than she “LOOOOOVes” you?
Before you tell me I don’t understand the horrible suffering of somebody who feels rejected by an adviser, I can tell you that mine also loved “Megan” more than she loved me. My “Megan” actually left academia and chose to do something different with her life while I got “a TT job in Utah.” Both “Megan” and I knew the adviser loved her and detested me. This didn’t prevent us from being best friends and exchanging a quiet chuckle about the adviser’s small foibles. As adults, we believed that competing for the teacher’s affections is what pre-schoolers do.
The entire article is as whiny and disgusting as the quoted part. And I see this kind of drama queenish stuff published by academics about once a week. The authors of such articles seem to compete as to which one of them will find a more bizarre reason to feel aggrieved and downtrodden. For now, I’d say that the winner of that competition is definitely the “Mommy, why does Ms. Williams like Megan more than she likes me?” piece. But tomorrow somebody will break this record.
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