May 2019 Advisors Corner

Summertime Blues

In my home state of Louisiana, summertime blues can have an entirely different meaning than what it does for most people. Jazz and the blues are common summertime sounds that you can hear spilling out of many southern windows and doors as you walk by, especially in New Orleans and other cities and towns along the Delta. It’s a lazy time of year, the heat and humidity see to that, but it’s hardly a sad time. When the weather makes it hard to “do” things, it can be an opportunity for planning things. A perfect time to set your goals for when the temperatures are a little more agreeable for ambition. For the academic life, the summertime can be when we make our to-do lists for the fall. A new group of future audiologists will be arriving on campus to take their first steps towards a noble career and we have the opportunity to guide and inspire them. Involving them in SAA and demonstrating the importance of advocacy as they learn the skill set of our profession can have long lasting and impactful outcomes. While you are finishing up the responsibilities of the spring term and close to putting another academic year in the books, I hope your own version of the summertime blues allows for some lazy opportunities where your creative side can plan for ways to inspire our future colleagues. Cheers to you and thanks for all the work you do ensuring that others protect and care for our profession in a way that leaves it better than when we found it!