Post-Sabbatical Syndrome

Sabbatical is the word related to Sabbath. In the Bible, God made heaven and earth and then rested in seventh day, and the Jewish law follows its lead, Israeli farmland was also closed every seventh year, giving the soil time to recover. In accordance with this origin, the university provided a sabbatical year at the seventh year of research and education, starting with Harvard in 1880. Now, quite a few companies also operate sabbaticals.

When I got on the plane for the sabbatical, I was looking forward to what I could accomplish. On the other hand, there was advice not to force myself. It was that in other countries, far from home, family possibly might be under pressure and the unexpected crises would exist in proportion to new experiences. After careful preparation to make up for that, I went on my way out and continued to play a role as a faithful sherpa for the family.

In the fullness of time, when I start to miss a mother country, I ended my sabbatical, and finally returned home. However, the sabbatical came at a high price; it cost me a life of bread and butter and years of restraints. Moreover, I felt an unexpected reverse culture shock at work. The process of flowing from absolute freedom to everyday rules was disappointing and boring.

Nonchalantly everyone was in a well-organized routine, but I was the only one looking at them unfamiliarly, so I tried something new. Even though I didn’t feel comfortable with my newly changed taste, I visited the local cafeteria, met old colleagues again and looked around long-standing environs after work. There were times when I made a hollow smile finding the old me in the past, but soon I was relieved as if I was approaching an extension of the sabbatical year with recovering myself in a different way. Like Israel’s agricultural land to replenish nourishment, it was true that another effort was needed to regain my intellectual enrichment after the year. I believe there is a quid pro quo in this.

As time went by, defeating emptiness, one day the dean called me.

“You should be the department chair from next year.”

“How much do you trust me?”

“It is somewhere between 70 and 80 percent.”

“Huh, all right, let’s do that.”

The new year of 2021, it became a time of handing over the reins of desk work. But I didn’t know how much self-discipline and self-control were needed to get to the task at hand.