Reading the Obama Biographies to Help Inform My Professional Identity
Cropped image of Barack and Michelle Obama exiting the stage after a campaign stop in Des Moines, IA., January 7, 2008 (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.)
Like many of you, I want to begin this new year with intention. For starters, I decided that I will only use audiobook format for leisure “reading”, leaving hardcopy book purchases for work-related material. To that end, I decided to listen to books written by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady, Michele Obama, or as I prefer to say, my #ForeverPOTUS and #ForeverFLOTUS.
Their audiobooks were as different as they are. For example, Mr. Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, is abridged in audio format and just 6 hours long, while Mrs. Obama’s book, Becoming, is a whopping 19 hours. He is direct and tells a good story with efficiency, while she is deliberate in creating a picture in your mind with her words. Both of their writing styles appealed to me. I have a tendency to write efficiently but speak more elaboratively.
Both their books helped me get some direction for the year. Here is a quote from my personal journal that I have kept since 2016. I wrote this in the journal after finishing Mrs. Obama’s book (which I read last):
So I am glad that I read these biographies at the start of the new year. They both are helping me reflect on who I am and what my legacy will be. It will be informed by hope for the future knowing that it will always be an act of becoming. This year will be one more page in that story so it is good that I have some direction to get it started.
In the early 1990s, I came across the concept of becoming. When guests of a program asked the host “How are you?”, his response was always “Better and better”. To me that was the essence of becoming. We are in a perpetual state of progress as human beings. It is unnerving for some to think of life that way, but it is our reality.
So... to that end, I am taking stock of who I am up until now, and who I am becoming. At the end of last year, I applied to two tenure-track positions at community colleges in my area. I have been asked in the past if I was ever interested in a tenure track position, and I’ve always said no. At this point in my life, I just wanted the security of employment. Being a lecturer in the CSU provided that path. So, it was a surprise to me that I even considered these positions. Both are Ethnic Studies professor positions, with one having the added responsibility of managing the Ethnic Studies program.
Now I have to think about how my professional identity will shift as a result of this new consideration. I never saw myself as someone who is a specialist in Ethnic Studies. That was not on my life Bingo Card. In thinking back, though, on how I taught and advised, it does now seem inevitable. I like teaching Ethnic Studies and I like doing research on its transformative impact. This shift will also continue informing my leadership of the Colégas Group. It will add to my expertise and provide my clients confidence that I know what I am talking about, and that they are safe to explore things with me.
My professional identity is something that I cultivate. My reputation comes from it, so I must be deliberate in what I want the world to remember about me. The Obamas and their stories helped me reflect and consider who I am becoming and what impact I want to leave on the world. So, I ask you, whose biography are you reading? How is it impacting your growth and development? What sort of mark do you want to leave on the world this year? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I look forward to reading them.
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