Open door

My office door is open right now. During this semester, that has been unusual.

This has been a tough semester, which I blame (fairly or not) on teaching a class new to me, which is Biological Writing. Because it is a writing course, there is a huge amount of marking. Some of the longer assignments have taken a more than a solid work day of doing almost nothing but marking. And having my office door open makes it impossible to get in such solid working days.

I've really hated it.

Not the marking, but that I've been forced to shut myself away. But I haven't found any other alternative. I suppose I could make my students write less -- but that would make the class nearly pointless.

Something I tell students a lot is that in many ways, scientific careers are not predictable because so much of it is about personal connections. And I tell them, "You never know who's going to walk through your door, and you never know who's door you're going to walk into." Someone walks into your door, strikes up a conversation, and it sets you off on something you didn't expect.

And obviously, when your door is closed...

Yeah. Really hate doing it.