Today marks the start of my 16th year teaching sociology. What would I have thought of this particular marker in the past? Some retrospective speculation:

-Fall 2020: How many more years of teaching during COVID might there be? This was a semester of teaching masked students sitting six feet apart plus having some students joining class via Zoom. Getting to the next Fall semester, let alone several years down the road, was far from my mind.

-Fall 2009: Starting as an assistant professor, there is much to learn. What did I need to do in the classroom each day? How could I write and publish? How did my institution operate? I was hopeful about future years but the day-to-day concerns of preparing classes took a lot of time.

-Fall 2008: Focused on finishing up my dissertation research. Lots of research and writing to do.

-Fall 2004: The beginning of graduate school in sociology. We heard about how many of us would make it and what we needed to do to succeed. Could I do what someone needed to do to be a sociologist for a long time?

-Fall 2003: Senior year of college begins and graduation looms on the horizon. Does going to graduate school and pursuing academic work sound appealing? You can get paid to teach, think, and spend years on a college campus? Time to get those applications written and sent in.

-Fall 2002: Graduation is a ways away and I am taking a semester off from college and working. Lots of options to consider for the future.

-Fall 2000: College is underway and while teaching holds some appeal, it is exciting to take classes in a range of topics that interest me. A semester later, I will take my first sociology course and soon select that to study.

-Any school year starting before this: little to no thoughts of becoming a college faculty member.

I am sometimes asked when I knew I wanted to be a faculty member and/or pursue sociology as an academic. The short answer: it developed over time.

On the other hand, it is hard to imagine what else life could be like in late August after being a sociologist this long. I have enjoyed teaching, writing and researching, working with students, and serving in my institution. As with each new school year, it is exciting to launch another round of learning and questions and development. That excitement may wax and wane through the academic calendar but today is a good day: the 2024-25 academic year is now underway.