On Taking a Detour

In Episode 6 of Season 1 of Breaking Bad “Crazy Handful of Nothin’,” there’s a bit character named Hugo. During the episode, Walter White (who at this point is still working as a high school chemistry teacher) has to leave mid-class because he’s nauseous from chemotherapy treatment. Walter is cleaning up after himself when Hugo, the janitor, checks on him. “I got it, Mr. White,” he says. “Don’t worry. You got kids to teach.” Later in the episode when a similar nauseous incident occurs, Hugo places a comforting hand on his shoulder and offers Walter a stick of gum.

That brief appearance by Hugo the Janitor has stuck with me because what I see in him is compassion, respect, and perspective. Though his job is not glamorous, he recognizes his role in serving the institution’s mission of education. He could have been annoyed to clean up after a teacher, he could have left the bathroom without Walt knowing, he could have passed judgement on why this teacher would be throwing up in the bathroom. But instead, he approached the situation directly and calmly and kept the education of the students his priority. Later, he anticipated Walt’s needs by offering him the gum. Compassion, respect, and perspective.

After doing the whole three-years-as-an-RA, straight-to-grad-school, cliche-student-affairs-story thing, I landed a job as an Area Coordinator for Residence Life and Conduct Coordinator at Warren Wilson College, a small school with lots of hats to be worn. I found this combination of responsibilities, institution size, and live-in requirements rewarding but also very demanding. So when the added stress of an ending marriage came a little over a year and a half into the job, I found myself on the verge of burning out of the career path I had come to love so much. By the end of the second year, a leadership position had opened up in the Public Safety office and I took the chance and a change of scenery. It felt strange to be stepping away from ResLife work for the first time in seven years, but I was excited for new opportunities. This job afforded me the chance to live in my own off-campus apartment for the first time, have some separation from work, explore a professional interest in emergency preparedness, and most importantly, not rely on so heavily my empathy as a work tool. I will admit: I miss the feeling of prestige from facilitating life changing conversations, having teaching moments, and of course making door decs.

Incidentally, Warren Wilson College is a work college. This means that on-campus work is a fundamental part of our students liberal arts curriculum; students participate in all kinds of work including custodial, plumbing, accounting, administration, farming, food service, and more. They earn work GPAs in addition to academic ones. In a very literal sense, our custodians are some of most prolific educators of students, especially freshmen: one of them won the Staff Teaching Excellence Award for the 2014-2015 school year. I won it the next year, in my previous position. But there are no student workers in my new Public Safety department. How could I possibly justify moving to the periphery of such a unique learning environment?

What I have learned for myself is that there is tremendous value and beauty held by Hugo and other folks in supportive roles. In fact, I quite like the occupation of protecting this institution of higher education. Though I dearly miss having a central role in student development, I know that my career has many more twists and turns ahead. In the meantime, I choose to enjoy this unexpected part of my career as a gift and learn everything that I can from it. And I don’t just mean that in a career way, I mean it in a holistic way. I’m kind of embarrassed to say this, but - and I think I’m not alone here - I never paid real bills until I left residence life. Big ones, anyway, like rent and cable and electric. I haven't - as an adult - held a job that felt like a job and not a lifestyle. I miss ResLife and traditional Student Affairs in general, but I’ll be back. For now, you can find me exploring a detour and seeing where it leads.

I believe that the advice we give others is often the advice we need to hear ourselves. So instead of ending this with a vanilla platitude, let me end with the advice I wish I had paid more attention to.

Throw out all notions that you have that your path in life is any kind of predictable. You may think you’re a marriage-ready, state-school-lovin’, born-to-be-student-affairsist, then find out that support services at a private college is a pretty good place to ride out a divorce. Ground your values on things like the compassion, respect, and perspective that Hugo represents, not in things like career path or achievement that can be adjusted along the way. As long as you’ve got enough to pay the bills and be happy, everything will work out fine.

And geez, lighten up a little, okay?

Do you have thoughts on this blog post? Share them with us on Facebook @NPGSKC, on Twitter @npgs_kc, or on Instagram @npgs_kc!

Michael Crosa is a 2014 graduate of the Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education program at Texas A&M University. Michael currently serves as the Assistant Director for Public Safety at Warren Wilson College. He can be reached on Twitter at @CrosasaurusRex.