How Transfer Season is Hell; or, Time to Do a Ferdinand

Sometimes, I wish I could be more like Ferdinand, my favorite hero from one of my favorite children's books by Munro Leaf, and illustrated by Robert Lawson.

Comparing Ferdinand to the other bulls in the ring, who snort and cavort and show off, Leaf writes, "But not Ferdinand. When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the lovely ladies' hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled." 

Everyone expects him to be a fighter, but all he really wants to do is sit in a field and smell the flowers.

Why can't I just sit around and smell the flowers? Why do I always want to fight the good fight?

(as an aside, I always wondered if this was a protest book for Franco and the Fascist regime. I guess all roads lead to Spain and to Guernica. . . ) 

Instead, I am still obsessing over things I can't change. Argh!

It's the government system, including inefficiencies and inconsistencies and just people who are supposed to know the answers not having a clue. Have you called HR lately? Then you know my pain.

And you are probably laughing at why I think fighting the world's biggest bureaucracy is going to change it.

I am OCD'ing it by checking my email and fb messages to see if anyone has heard anything about our transfer round that was supposedly finished up on Friday. Not a soul has heard anything that I know of, so maybe I'm in good shape? Who knows.

And I posted about this on facebook a few days ago, so my apologies if you've already seen it, but it was too good to miss again.

http://datarep.tumblr.com/post/54007624407/dantes-inferno-a-helpful-diagram-to-eternal

If you aren't familiar with Dante's Inferno, it basically tells of Dante's journey through Hell, which has many levels and layers. Students love it.

The sign above hell says, "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here" or something to that effect (there are several translations). 

My former colleague and I used to laugh and laugh about how GTMO should have that over the gate. Like many of my colleagues, she is now gone, so who's laughing now? 

I've had several people call and write and message, all asking about the transfer. I turned in my application over a month ago, did a little tweaking to the final version and resubmitted by deadline, and now I sit and wait. And wait. And wait some more. They only inform those who get the job. They don't inform you if you don't. I know this because I have already applied for a transfer 2 years in a row, and I didn't get a "we're sorry" or "you're outta luck" or "sucker!" email or anything.

I also applied for an ISS position, which is something of a promotion (well, sort of, anyway) and was very hopeful when I actually got an interview a few weeks ago.  It was in a field I want to be in and in a place I'd like to live. But alas, that did not pan out, either. My options are getting shorter.  I wish I could just sit and smell the flowers and be content, but it's just not happening. 

I haven't heard anything but as soon as I do, I PROMISE I will post about it. The future is uncertain. For those of you who keep writing and texting and calling, I am not ignoring you. I just have NO information. Nada. 

In the meanwhile, I am circling Dante's 1st level of hell, Limbo. I hate living in limbo and that's what the transfer season does for those people who want to leave. You don't just jump up and move to another country; even if you are given several months notice, it takes months to gets everything in motion for a smooth transition. My son is overseas and doesn't know if he'll be coming back here for summer to work or going somewhere else with us until his school starts. Our youngest will be transitioning to middle school and we'll need to find out about new schools. Summer plans depend on the transfer. What I'm teaching if I am stuck here next year here will yet again be up in the air, and that's a whole other sort of limbo.

Let's hope good news comes out by tomorrow. I will tell you this: there will be people in this transfer process who will move to Wrathful if they don't get a transfer. I'm hoping I can continue to stay philosophic about why I'm stuck indefinitely in a hardship location, but there's a good chance I may slip along the way. Hopefully I can find my way back up to Limbo, if that happens.

I've got to stop and smell the flowers. The last words of Leaf's book? "And for all I know [Ferdinand] is sitting still there, under his favorite cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly.

He is very happy."