Playing in the corridors of academia

This chapter follows two pathways – ten years of ebbs and flows detailing the balancing act that is the play between academia and personal lives. It focuses on our lived experience as two sessional academics working across the corridors of multiple institutions. Using emails to communicate, we explore a new narrative possibility for critical dialogue in schedules that allow little face-to-face time. Our emails reveal the complexities and uncertainties of negotiating the game played by all sessional academics. The games the universities play are also highlighted as we discover that the value of teaching is superseded by the value of research and funding procured to maintain job security. Constant travelling, negotiating diverse management systems and personalities, and attempting to build a career without a continuing position, juxtaposes the narratives of single parenthood, doctoral studies, new loves, and the precious needs of ever patient children and partners. Finding comfort in our creative selves, the blending of visual arts, music, and gardening give voice, reason, some stability, and playtime to the daily chaos.