{"id":3016,"date":"2017-12-09T03:04:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T03:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.wordpress.com\/?p=3016"},"modified":"2020-08-09T17:23:26","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T00:23:26","slug":"that-gap-in-my-cv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.org\/everythingelse\/2017\/12\/09\/that-gap-in-my-cv\/","title":{"rendered":"That gap in my cv"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I asked for advice on writing my cover letter for tenure-track job applications, I was told to address what I had done in the 16 years between receiving my Bachelor’s degree and going back to school for a Master’s in psychology. Because yes, there is a huge gap in my cv<\/em>. My draft letter had not done so… it was pointed out that departments want to know something about me beyond my academic records (papers published, courses taught). It was kindly not pointed out that 16 unexplained years could have been spent in prison, in a hippie commune, in a mental institution… insert anything an active imagination can come up with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"that
Much of my time in Spain was spent on a horse. Even when I was working as a full-time teacher, I would get up at 4:30 am on Saturday to ride out once a week. (Hipodromo de la Zarzuela, Madrid)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unless they did some serious stalking, an admissions committee probably would not come up with the truth, so even though that paragraph about\u00a0what happened<\/em> in the interim felt weird, I have included it, in some form, in all my letters. It pretty much states what happened: I lived abroad for 16 years, most of them in Spain, but also in Mexico, Panama, and Nicaragua. I trained and rode race horses. I worked for an equine magazine. Years later, I taught at a bilingual British\/Spanish school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Class\"
My first class, Preparatory (aka kindergarten) at St. Michael’s School (2005)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That doesn’t really\u00a0mean<\/em> anything… oh a reader could guess that I may know something about horses, children, and Spanish, but how much, and what that knowledge looks like, is not revealed. More importantly, much of who I\u00a0am<\/em> that resulted from that time abroad is only tangentially related, if at all, to these broad descriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On music…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For example, my love of lieder began when I tried to play music for my horses at the track in Madrid (I was an amateur owner). The little radio I had would only play a classical station without static. Of course, I was already familiar with classical music; my parents had plenty, my grandfather loved it (I still remember his music collection), and I had played in an excellent high school band that performed, among other things, lots of Tchaikovsky, including the 1812 Overture, Wagner, Dvorak, etc. And I had already developed a certain fascination with Requiems. But I knew nothing of lieder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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