Retiring from Higher Education (again)

Fine Art Department, Colorado Mesa University

A good friend of mine once made the statement that “when you try and catch two rabbits you usually don’t catch any”. When she made the comment, we were talking about me attempting to run my business, while teaching at the university and acting as Andy’s caregiver. Palisade Posh and my teaching job were the two rabbits.

For years in Denver, I juggled multiple teaching jobs simultaneously while taking care of my family and pursuing my art practice. Look back now the signs were there, usually by the end of the term I was completely wiped out. Unfortunately, our financed did not allow me the opportunity to dial it back. When Andy went down with his stroke, I kicked into this same mind set. This time I had to take care of our property, oversee the management company running our Airbnb, teach and be Andy’s caregiver. During this time my art practice took a back seat and all things creative in my life stopped abruptly.

As the months pasted, I decided I was not happy with the management of the Airbnb and determined I should do it myself. I figured, if I was going to have my own company, I should be the one running it. I started with the cleaning and then midsummer decided to also take on the management of it. Then classes started at Colorado Mesa University, and I was back to teaching. Andy’s recovery journey was in full swing, and he had many doctor’s and therapy appointments. While Bella helps drive him to some, I was still the main caregiver.

Although I’ve managed many things simultaneously, looking back I’m not sure if I really did a good job of it. This time it felt even harder to accomplish, I could feel the stress and the weight and knew it was only a matter of time before I started dropping balls. It was hard to keep up on the property, the idea of managing the Airbnb was overwhelming, I wasn’t making any art and I felt like I was failing Andy all the time.

Something had to give; this is when I decided to step back from teaching. Usually I enjoy teaching, I love the University vibe, and the students are always awesome; but the weight of everything was sucking the joy out of it. I needed to let go of this ‘rabbit’ and focus on building my business. This would also give me the opportunity to reengage with my creative practice and be more present for Andy.

I paid off all our credit card debt and started to rebuild our various financial safety nets. I also stopped including my paycheck in our monthly budgets so we could get used to living on one salary. Andy started back to work part time in August and each month he has increased his hours. This has done wonders for his mental health as it is reengaging that brilliant mind of his. To say Andy was bored during his early rehabilitation would be an understatement! This in turn took a huge stressor off my plate as I was no longer worried about us losing our property, my business, or our home!

The income the Airbnb brings in is currently one of our safety nets and what I use to fund the ongoing development of the property, including Posh Gardens. I make more money by renting out the Cottage that I ever did teaching as an adjunct professor. This is why I had so many part time teaching gigs in Denver.

So now as the semester winds down at CMU, I am ready to retire from university life and focus on building my business which includes my art practice and taking care of Andy (not necessarily in that order). I still have plans to teach but this time it will be for myself and a part of the Palisade Posh vision. It’s an exciting twist to this new chapter of my life that I started when we moved to Palisade. Teaching at Colorado Mesa University was a happy accident as I had fully intended on retiring from teaching when we decided to move to Palisade. I am very grateful for the opportunity and while I will no longer be a member of the academic community, our daughter Bella has decided to complete her degree there and will begin her CMU adventure come January. If I need a shot of academia, I can always meet Bella for lunch on Campus!