As I put in the final grades for the three sections of econ classes I taught this spring, my 15-month-long sabbatical journey begins. Until August 2023, I am released from all teaching and service responsibilities at my university. No more student emails, no more start-the-class jokes, no more dressing for the class, and no more energy-consuming lectures. I will have the abundance of something so precious and scarce, time. I learned that my sabbatical was approved last December, so I had five months to think about what I want to do with my time. Definitely something big and wild, but also plenty things that are small and consistent.
Chris is involved, no, he is the main planner on the big and wild part. He runs a software business and can work from anywhere, so when I am not confined by my job, the whole family is ready to fly. In the spring of 2023, we will be moving away from our home and city, for six months. Our initial plan was to move to Wuhan, China, where I grew up, and spend lots of time with my parents (after not seeing them for three years). Kate (6) and David (3) will attend an international school and have a full life experience in my hometown. With the current Covid situation in China, the chance that the country will be open to foreigners is so unpredictable. I still have my hopes up, but Chris is drafting a plan B. Hawaii, Lisbon, New Zealand have been in his research. They sound fun, but lack practicality in one way or another. We have constraints of visa issues, cost of living, schools for the kids, and cultural adaptation. The list goes on. My recent update from Chris: Santa Barbara has become the top runner.
On the personal side, I have decided to focus on the following three areas:
1. Writing economics papers
This is part of my job as an economist. I have slowed down on research since David was born three years ago. That is also the year I received tenure from my university. While being a working mother, I want to be very involved in my children’s life, and fortunately I can do that with a job in academia. I block quite a bit of time each week to spend with Kate and David. That means intense research work needs to wait till summer. Take out a month of family vacation and two weeks of my own lack of discipline, there is not a large chuck of time left.
This one-year sabbatical will be the first time I have no teaching responsibilities, AND, no infants at home. The first thing to jump back into, of course, is research. I enjoy problem solving and writing about economics. I take pride in it. This uninterrupted time to a researcher is divine.
My goals: start and finish two projects. One short empirical work, and one complex modeling work with simulation. Land my current working paper in an A-level journal.
2. Learning French
Both of my best friends in high school speak French (and English) fluently. It gives me a great incentive and advantage to learn French myself. I formed a French club with my friend Aisela in Jan of 2021. We both had some minimum background with the language, and desired to improve and be proficient one day. We studied the book “The Berlitz self-teacher” on our own and met every other week to practice. The French club has expanded to 6 members since then. Some women in the group are more interested in the social aspect of the club than the language itself. I slowly (and unwillingly) accepted their preference and stopped chasing them with French assignments.
Speaking someone’s mother tongue opens a hidden door to their culture and the places they call home. I hope learning French is a step to know the world and some people in their most authentic form, and I won’t stop there. Down the road, I will turn to Spanish and possibly Italian.
My goals: be able to converse in French and pick up the main information from a native speaker
3. Reading
I am always happy after I read a book. I just don’t do it enough.
Recently, I started reading again and finished a few books: The meaning of marriage; Deep work; How brands grow. Now, I am on All creatures great and small. I was surprised by: 1. how fast I finish a book if I read a little everyday 2. how much I enjoy reading on a variety of topics. A rational response to my surprises is, read then.
There are a few books on the shelf that I meant to read for a long time. I will start with them. I often get book recommendations from friends in a causal conversation, but rarely wrote them down. Here is my plan. I will reach out to friends and family members, asking for two books they loved reading (minimum of one non-fiction and a book in their field is preferred). I will form and update a reading list throughout my sabbatical time. My hope is this practice forms a life-time habit and generates long-term benefits.
My goals: read 60 books
I will use this blog to document my journey. It also acts as my accountability and scoreboard. It is my long answer to a commonly asked question: “what do you do with a sabbatical?!”