counting the years.

so the offer letter came in the mail today. among other matters, it read:

Type of appointment: Tenure Track, probationary period prior to tenure ends August 31, 2020.

wow: 2020?

i can barely fathom that far ahead in the future. in my mind, i'm still a little boy and we're supposed to have flying cars by now.

on a more serious note, i still have trouble believing it. six years: i've never had such a length of time committed to any one stage of my adult life before:

it's going on 2 years for this postdoc,
the last 3 were for another postdoc,
the last 5 i spent completing a ph.d.,
the last 4 were my undergraduate years ..
..
[blinks]
[counts]

ye gods: i've spent more than a third of my life on college campuses!