Filling Time: TwinLife Empty-Nesting

When I work alone, it takes two hours to deconstruct my house of Christmas decorations. This is always how I spend my time on New Year’s Day. It was not how I spent the bulk of my time last week, however.

Though most people assume that professors get lots of time off–summer, fall, winter, and spring break–I have never really had that time off. For the first part of my professor career, when I was raising young twins, I spent every break either taking care of my kids or writing toward tenure. After tenure, I took on more administrative responsibility, so even though my kids were more self-sufficient, I still spent time writing or administrating. Since taking over as administrative leader for a 1-year graduate program nearly nine years ago, I haven’t really had time to take a break. Even when my colleagues are “on break,” I am not. The only week I have any time away from email and the challenges of work is between Christmas and New Year’s.

But last year I had to write an accreditation report. I had hoped to have it done by the end of the semester, but the world had different plans for me, and I spent the only week that I actually get a vacation each year writing that report. Because I have been giving a lot to work over the last decade, I was determined to take my “only” week this year. But, again, the world had different plans.

In several recent posts I have hinted that something big happened at work. Here’s the big blog reveal. My university has been taking a hard look at what we do as a higher education institution. We know that the world is changing, and higher ed (all of ed) is slow to catch up. We also know that more and more teens are electing not to attend college after high school. And more foundationally, we know that higher ed is just not accessible to many people.

When we look at these truths in the mirror, we know that the system needs to change, and I have been working with my colleagues over the last year to imagine what that change might be. This fall, our Board of Trustees approved the creation of a new school at our university–one that would be focused on reimagining higher education. I have been asked to lead it.

As a career educator who has been arguing for over two decades that schools need to change in fundamental ways, the challenge of building a school from the ground up is also an incredible opportunity. As someone who started this blog with the commitment not to fill her time as an empty-nester with work… well, that’s going to be a challenge for me to tackle in 2026.

I spent the last week of 2025 working with the hopes that 2026 will bring something great to my professional life. But I also spent it cleaning out closets, taking down holiday ornaments (and sweeping up tree needles), setting up a home office for my husband (who has been using our dining room since Covid), dealing with unexpected water damage, and cherishing every minute my kids spent in the house. In hindsight, I had a pretty full week! Because my kiddos were so busy connecting with friends over break, I didn’t have to feel too guilty about putting so much into work last week. As I move into the new year, I want to be intentional about “saying yes” to opportunities to fill time that do not involve my new–and exciting–role at work.