May 19 Day 72: For Math and Love

This week has a lot due dates and deadlines converging. I’ve spent a fair few too many late nights trying to get ahead of regular work so that I can add in the special requests. I’m not complaining. It is a privilege to participate in these ways:

  • Working with colleagues to create a special award ceremony for our mathematics majors—including printing 3D medallions, “singing” for a recorded tribute (yikes…I sure hope they use auto-tune), and some other creative endeavors to honor our graduating seniors.
  • Preparing for the MAA Board of Directors Meeting. There are reports to read, thoughts to think, and big decisions to finalize. I love the people I get to work with and am more than a little sad not to be flying to Washington, DC tomorrow to work in person.
  • “Teaching” the classes that I would have cancelled (or gotten a colleague to cover for me) because of travel. There is no such thing as cancellation in the times of Corona. I will just teach remotely in a different way.

I suppose the problem with all-remote-all-the-time is that nothing feels different. Even special events are hours in front of a Zoom screen. And now without the requirement of travel, we attempt to maintain regular commitments on top of special ones. It’s too much.

I am feeling confident that I will get it all done. But this is the third night in a row I will have worked past 11 pm. For those of you who know me, this is HUGE. I am an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kinda girl. I love my sleep—especially as a coping mechanism to stress. My family has given me space to get things done and I am really missing them right now, even though we are all under the same roof.

Published by Jenny Quinn

Mathematician. Mother. Wife. Leader. I am a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington Tacoma. Mother of Anson and Zachary. Wife to Mark. President of the Mathematical Association of America.

One thought on “May 19 Day 72: For Math and Love

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