Breathe, just breathe!

I have to admit - with my current workload and also the need to spend time on what I love to do, sometimes, I do find it difficult to breathe.

I do notice that I have less time to really blog about a lot of things in my life now. Even time spent on taking quality pictures of products has also decreased tremendously. No, no, no... that doesn't mean I will stop blogging - at least not for the time being. This is my interest and the only way I could let out if I were stressed.

Honestly, I get pretty annoyed when people who don't know my job label it as 'the easiest job with no worries or stresses.'

Believe me when I say, yes, I get that a lot from friends and relatives.

I beg to differ.

Put yourself in my shoes for a day and see what my day is like before telling me, "Your job is the best job because you get paid for doing easy tasks!"

However, I do not complain because this is indeed one of the jobs that I enjoy doing despite all the work and pressure the upper level gives.

Lemme just give you a glance at what my job is all about.

1. 1. I lecture but not teach because lecture and teach are basically two different concepts. During teaching, you can spoon-feed but you can't do so during lecture.
   
2. My working hour is flexible and that means I come and go as I like with the deal that I must finish what I need to do on that day.
   
3. Slides, baby, slides - those are the compulsory components in a lesson. It is not easy especially if you were asked to handle the courses that you have never dealt with before. I am the exact example of that - I was a Linguistics student and yet, I was being thrown to teach grammar and structure of English. That pretty much means I need to do a lot of reading. FYI, Linguistics and English Grammar and Structure are two completely different courses.
   
4. One lecturer will be assigned to handle around 3 to 4 courses max. It would be easy if the number of student is small but for my courses, since they are compulsory, I have to teach around 200 students every semester. Comparing to those who have smaller number of students, it is not fair.
   
5. Lecturers have to prepare assignments, progress tests as well as exam questions every semester. We have to submit these evaluation methods for vetting by Week 7 of each semester for each subject.
   
6. Contrary to what people believe - you can recycle your notes, slides and exam questions, we are told NOT to do so. Yes, I do understand in certain universities, this issue happens but we make sure our staff in the university does not commit this mistake. We are allowed to recycle everything but we have to make sure there is addition to that everything every semester. See what I mean? You don't get the same exam questions every semester, right?
   
7. Lesson plans are not easy to write - it is not like the typical primary and secondary schools' teaching plans. Ours are completely different. Furthermore, each faculty's teaching plan is different. I was assigned to lecture in two different faculties, hence, I have to be familiar with both teaching plans.
   
8. Lecturers get paid a lot - I am sorry to say that no, that is only a myth. Unless you are a professor for public university, then, you'll get paid a lot. If you are in a private institution, this rule does not apply. Thus, I conclude that I am not even close to being rich.

So now, for those of you who think my job is easy, you can re-figure it again.

I guess I'm gonna stop here for this entry. I need to take some time away from books and laptops just to breathe.

Happy day, everyone!