I dunno is Sir over 60? Still 2-0-1 in death matches against pickup trucks, but I think I might have added a car or two to the win column since 2001. Sucks being an unkillable badass but still subject to long term injuries, or immortal but not invulnerable. I’m getting so tired to people hitting me while I cross the street with the light…
Old Fart
Opus the Poet: Wait, what? You cross with the light? Next you’ll tell me you stop at stop signs. That is almost unheard of behavior for cyclists around here.
I did today on my bike, and it confused a motorist. They stopped dead 50 feet down the road and waited, so I went. They were probably afraid I would ride out right in front of them. It was their right of way, so I was going to wait at the stop sign, but I guess they’d never seen anybody do that on a bike.
Maybe you should leave Texas if you’re going to ride those things. Driving culture varies by location.
Leslie you speak the truth, as someone whose 26th birthday is rapidly approaching and is scared for the future, i feel you. Joyce, call your fucking dad back, seriously. How is this a hard concept?
I’m 32 and I see no sign of stopping being a scared mess. I’m inclined to think it never happens, you either get used to it or you learn how to pretend.
Some people DO believe that they’ve figured it all out. Unfortunately, they tend to be those cranky, unbearable people who think everybody else is doing it wrong. š
i mean, you can figure out many things, better yourself in every way, continue learning how to hone your skills and deal with problems in the most helpful way possible, balance yours and others needs. Idk, i used to agree a lot but seems a bit defeatist and counter productive to keep thinking on that instead of thinking the next way you can improve yourself.
Dont get me wrong, “scared mess” when loved ones are in danger? That’s me. But i got a lot better at being a scared mess with practice, and take effort to improve on all other things too.
It does NOT explain how she’s teaching a college course though, unless she’s still a PhD candidate and the Gender Studies department lets you run as instructor of record during the year. But it’s usually only English departments who do that, most places you can’t get a gig running a class unless you’ve finished your PhD. Especially since the market is glutted with grads who’ll adjunct.
There were at least a couple people in the comment section suggesting something along these lines in a way that makes Leslie’s current statement ironic. Basically the idea is Joyce’s dad is calling to tell her that ToeDad is out of jail on bail but because of her other concerns she isn’t picking it up. This is exactly the kind of situation Leslie is describing and it’s actively happening.
Then, I mean, at least maybe, I DUNNO, send a TEXT or something?!
[Hi, love, listen, are you able to contact Becky? I didn’t want to tell you like this but you both need to know that TOEDAD IS OUT OF JAIL. REPEAT: TOEDAD IS OUT OF JAIL ON BAIL, I have called your RN to let her know to get you two to safety and I am on my way! DO NOT] 1/9
[go to your room or Becky’s or anywhere a guy with a gun can see you! He’s apparently been out for at least [xx] hours so he could be there ANY MINUTE. Go and barricade yourself in] 2/9
[one of the administration offices and I’ll text you when I’m there! And if he shows up before I do CALL 911 AND DO NOT ENGAGE!!] 3/9
…etc. Or does he somehow not have even a flip phone?! Even my dad has one, and he’s ninety!
Leslie is 26?
Really? She’s tenure track at age 26? In present day?
Yeah, I think that might be the most unrealistic thing I’ve read in a comic, any comic, today.
Even with a doctorate, Leslie wouldn’t have a position like that until well into her 30s.
Or am I forgetting some line that indicates that she’s a part time adjunct lecturer rather than a professor? And this being her first year teaching? Because yeah, no way.
I seem to recall (though maybe it was a Patreon strip) that she shares office space, too? Which definitely says adjunct to me.
Norah
Yes, doesnāt she share an office with someone named Vivian?
LeslieBean4shizzle
Sharing an office, or not, has very little to do with whether she’s adjunct or full time and much more to do with the office availability where she works.
I’m an adjunct with a private office… and there are empty private offices on either side of mine. Low enrollment means fewer people teaching means everyone gets a private office… and hardly any classes.
There is a huge difference between tenured (already has tenure) and tenure-track (full time, has the potential to get tenure in a decade or two). She says she’s not tenured – nothing else. Although it’s true that she does have a small shitty apartment. Tiny apartments do tend to indicate adjunct.
She’s teaching a class that is full of freshmen. No tenure-track faculty is doing that unless it’s one of those lecture-hall classes with TAs to do the actual work.
I’ve lost basic intro classes to the head of the department or other tenure-ish faculty when enrollment is low. So yeah, depending on the department and class availability, tenure-track faculty will certainly teach intro classes – particularly at state colleges like the one here.
That is kinda my point. Gender Studies is a very, very competitive academic field – much like art history – where adjuncts rarely get even intro classes since there aren’t many classes to go around.
English is different – if she was an English teacher, I’d still think 26 was too young (at 26, she would barely have time to get a Masters much less a PhD), but I was at least teaching intro classes immediately after graduating from grad school, so it would be tight but possible. But Gender studies? At a major University? Unlikely.
To Clarify:
At bare minimum, assuming Leslie started college at age 17 (and turning 18 during the school year), she would have her Bachelors in Gender Studies by 21. Assuming that she took the GRE during her senior year and got accepted directly into grad school (again, tight but possible), then she would have a Masters by age 24 and, if she really hurried, a PhD by age 25.
However, most teaching positions require several years of experience, even for adjuncts. That’s easy for English people, since there are always comp classes, but not so much for specialized fields like Gender Studies.
Plus, Leslie never came off as a “new hire” – she has that laid back, I’ve been doing this for years vibe.
Anyway, I wrote out another several paragraphs using the experiences of myself and others in the academic sphere that i know as examples, but those are just anecdotal, so I removed them as technically irrelevant. The point being that I work at a university very similar to the one presented here and I know people in specialized fields like Gender Studies and it is SUPER HARD to get positions like Leslie has – even intro level ones – right after graduation. It can take upwards of a decade to get to where Leslie is, and she’s only had a year at most.
She’s also had some highly distracting life stuff happen, like being married young, coming out, and getting divorced. Didn’t she also face really unsupportive family?
She must’ve had tremendous focus, to not get derailed by all this at any point. Maybe she deals with emotions by throwing herself into her work, and in doing so, impressed the hell out of everyone.
Leorale
Moreover, hasn’t she also been homeless..? When was that, was she getting her Master’s degree from a pal’s couch?
Leslie is a force of nature.
Deathjavu
Yeah it seems like the takeaway from all this speculation and math is that Leslie is a badass.
Not that we didn’t already know that.
vlademir1
Here’s the timeline as I currently picture it…
@14: Leslie comes out to her parents. They are as we’ve seen them in SP! and she pulls a teen runaway bit while continuing to study so she can GED at 18.
@15: Leslie’s parents track her down and make her an offer, submit to an arranged marriage (cf. here for the age) and they’ll sign the waiver for her to GED at 16 and pay for her college. She accepts.
@16: Leslie starts her undergrad pushing herself to finish as quickly as possible. Doing this, in her mind, is a coping mechanism for her stress and an excuse to not engage any more than she has to with her husband. Very late in undergrad she starts getting published, building as much from her experiences as from her education.
@19: Leslie just finishes her undergrad, passes her GRE and gets accepted into her Masters program. Getting her second publication around this point.
@20: Leslie falls into a poor choice relationship with a woman collapsing her marriage and losing the money her parents are paying for her education in the fallout from it even as she continues pushing through her program and trying to find financing to continue.
@21: Leslie finished her Masters and starts her Doctorate amid mounting debt and a completely lost support network. Her situation is probably an open secret in the department at this point.
@23: Leslie finishes her PhD and, due to a solid academic record, publication history and probably making good impressions on the department head at some juncture all in spite of her situation, gets hired in and fast tracked in an exceptionally unusual manner.
@26: Here we are today.
It’s exceptionally implausible, but still technically possible, if only barely. Twenty some years ago someone in Leslie’s position at her age was much easier to explain. One of my friends during college was teaching this type of intro class while finishing his MS. I opted out of his class for a different one when it came up on my schedule just to avoid a potential conflict of interest. That was admittedly in a requisite field however.
BBCC
I still have teachers who are working on their PhDs. Mostly intros or electives but still.
168 thoughts on “Scared mess”
Ana Chronistic
OH NO QUICK UNFRIEND EVERYBODY
JetstreamGW
Classic Mike.
Doctor_Who
Plot twist: Hank just forgot the wifi password.
Reltzik
“For the last time, Dad, it’s on the back of the router. …. no, Dad, I’m not talking about your shop tools.”
Emperor Norton II
Plot twist: It was on the -bottom- of the router.
(Mine certainly is)
Nono
Oh no, Iām older than Leslie. What is my life.
Kamino Neko
I’m pretty sure I’m older than several of the parents, so… >_>
Agemegos
I don’t think I’m older than Sir.
Opus the Poet
I dunno is Sir over 60? Still 2-0-1 in death matches against pickup trucks, but I think I might have added a car or two to the win column since 2001. Sucks being an unkillable badass but still subject to long term injuries, or immortal but not invulnerable. I’m getting so tired to people hitting me while I cross the street with the light…
Old Fart
Opus the Poet: Wait, what? You cross with the light? Next you’ll tell me you stop at stop signs. That is almost unheard of behavior for cyclists around here.
I did today on my bike, and it confused a motorist. They stopped dead 50 feet down the road and waited, so I went. They were probably afraid I would ride out right in front of them. It was their right of way, so I was going to wait at the stop sign, but I guess they’d never seen anybody do that on a bike.
Maybe you should leave Texas if you’re going to ride those things. Driving culture varies by location.
Eusis
I was younger for the first few days of the strip’s life, then the same for a year!
Now it is but a distant memory. š
DarkoNeko
it’s ok, I was already older than her when the comic started.
Deanatay
Same. Oh, and BTW,
STILL A SCARED MESS
Jhon
I was older than Leslie when the comic started. I’m STILL older than Leslie.
What’s wrong with me?
a/snow/mous/e
You’re not getting any younger?
hof1991
None of my children are as young as Leslie.
Steelbright
Those were my thoughts too
Kyrik Michalowski
Leslie you speak the truth, as someone whose 26th birthday is rapidly approaching and is scared for the future, i feel you. Joyce, call your fucking dad back, seriously. How is this a hard concept?
abysswatcher1993
I agree with Leslie on both accounts that you never stop being afraid and JOYCE SHOULD FUCKING TALK TO HER DAD!
NightMare Dani
I’m 32 and I see no sign of stopping being a scared mess. I’m inclined to think it never happens, you either get used to it or you learn how to pretend.
Clif
No, I’d say about 68, two years ago, that changed. I’m still just as much of a mess, but for the most part, no longer scared.
Sheason
“Like, okay, spoilers, but I’m 26”
Oh, you sweet summer child…
StClair
No, the spoiler is that you never figure it all out.
Clif
And then you die.
DarkoNeko
Unless you’re a vampire.
Zaxares
Some people DO believe that they’ve figured it all out. Unfortunately, they tend to be those cranky, unbearable people who think everybody else is doing it wrong. š
Opus the Poet
For some reason I feel called out.
Vika
i mean, you can figure out many things, better yourself in every way, continue learning how to hone your skills and deal with problems in the most helpful way possible, balance yours and others needs. Idk, i used to agree a lot but seems a bit defeatist and counter productive to keep thinking on that instead of thinking the next way you can improve yourself.
Dont get me wrong, “scared mess” when loved ones are in danger? That’s me. But i got a lot better at being a scared mess with practice, and take effort to improve on all other things too.
foamy
Leslie being only 26 explains an awful lot of other things, TBH.
Thulcandran
It does NOT explain how she’s teaching a college course though, unless she’s still a PhD candidate and the Gender Studies department lets you run as instructor of record during the year. But it’s usually only English departments who do that, most places you can’t get a gig running a class unless you’ve finished your PhD. Especially since the market is glutted with grads who’ll adjunct.
SuperZero
Why is she a tiny baby? I thought she was supposed to be a grown-up.
pjeseb
Huh. That was an angle that the comment section seemed to have missed yesterday.
Alanari
Good thinking of Leslie though.
Shanunu
There were at least a couple people in the comment section suggesting something along these lines in a way that makes Leslie’s current statement ironic. Basically the idea is Joyce’s dad is calling to tell her that ToeDad is out of jail on bail but because of her other concerns she isn’t picking it up. This is exactly the kind of situation Leslie is describing and it’s actively happening.
Clif
We assume. Or I assume. But Willis will play against reader expectations. See Amber and Sal at Joyce’s party.
Kryss LaBryn
Then, I mean, at least maybe, I DUNNO, send a TEXT or something?!
[Hi, love, listen, are you able to contact Becky? I didn’t want to tell you like this but you both need to know that TOEDAD IS OUT OF JAIL. REPEAT: TOEDAD IS OUT OF JAIL ON BAIL, I have called your RN to let her know to get you two to safety and I am on my way! DO NOT] 1/9
[go to your room or Becky’s or anywhere a guy with a gun can see you! He’s apparently been out for at least [xx] hours so he could be there ANY MINUTE. Go and barricade yourself in] 2/9
[one of the administration offices and I’ll text you when I’m there! And if he shows up before I do CALL 911 AND DO NOT ENGAGE!!] 3/9
…etc. Or does he somehow not have even a flip phone?! Even my dad has one, and he’s ninety!
Pablo360
it bears repeating:
bearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbearsbears
also, as has been stated, this bodes poorly
Stephen Bierce
Support The Right To Arm BEARS
Delicious Taffy
Please vote to provide bears with bump stocks.
Clif
“Hey baby bear, let’s you and me bump stocks!”
Bear population plummets.
Deanatay
Can’t I just support the right to repeat bearsbearsbearsbears
Clif
Everyone should have a sbear bear.
Skemono
BEARS!!
Kravis
Wel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-PYqUHfTMA
Regalli
Huh. Iām Leslieās age. Next year, Iāll be older than Leslie.
This scares me, Iāve been reading this since I was a college freshman.
Also, GOOD EVERYONE REALIZES THIS now time to panic.
ValdVin
Leslie is a mature scared mess who is doing so much better here than I would at 26. Or 36, etc.
Khantalas
Leslie started out older than I am and ended up younger, and it’s a scary world knowing this.
Doctor_Who
Leslie started out as exactly my age, but now I’m close to a decade older than her.
No fair, how do I move to a universe with comic book time? Did Gwenpool ever write any instructional manuals?
ktbear
Huh, a time lord struggle with the vagaries of time. How quaint.
Axel
THANK YOU LESLIE
LeslieBean4shizzle
Leslie is 26?
Really? She’s tenure track at age 26? In present day?
Yeah, I think that might be the most unrealistic thing I’ve read in a comic, any comic, today.
Even with a doctorate, Leslie wouldn’t have a position like that until well into her 30s.
Or am I forgetting some line that indicates that she’s a part time adjunct lecturer rather than a professor? And this being her first year teaching? Because yeah, no way.
Lizardo
When she fights with Robin in the kitchen she says that she doesn’t so it’s fair to assume that she is in fact not tenured.
Regalli
I seem to recall (though maybe it was a Patreon strip) that she shares office space, too? Which definitely says adjunct to me.
Norah
Yes, doesnāt she share an office with someone named Vivian?
LeslieBean4shizzle
Sharing an office, or not, has very little to do with whether she’s adjunct or full time and much more to do with the office availability where she works.
I’m an adjunct with a private office… and there are empty private offices on either side of mine. Low enrollment means fewer people teaching means everyone gets a private office… and hardly any classes.
LeslieBean4shizzle
There is a huge difference between tenured (already has tenure) and tenure-track (full time, has the potential to get tenure in a decade or two). She says she’s not tenured – nothing else. Although it’s true that she does have a small shitty apartment. Tiny apartments do tend to indicate adjunct.
Marsh Maryrose
She’s teaching a class that is full of freshmen. No tenure-track faculty is doing that unless it’s one of those lecture-hall classes with TAs to do the actual work.
LeslieBean4shizzle
I’ve lost basic intro classes to the head of the department or other tenure-ish faculty when enrollment is low. So yeah, depending on the department and class availability, tenure-track faculty will certainly teach intro classes – particularly at state colleges like the one here.
Dark
I mean, to be fair, she’s teaching Gender Studies.
LeslieBean4shizzle
That is kinda my point. Gender Studies is a very, very competitive academic field – much like art history – where adjuncts rarely get even intro classes since there aren’t many classes to go around.
English is different – if she was an English teacher, I’d still think 26 was too young (at 26, she would barely have time to get a Masters much less a PhD), but I was at least teaching intro classes immediately after graduating from grad school, so it would be tight but possible. But Gender studies? At a major University? Unlikely.
I previously assumed that Leslie was 36, minimum.
Clif
My experience is that while there’s a bias towards quality, accedemic employment is pretty random, particularly at the lower levels.
LeslieBean4shizzle
To Clarify:
At bare minimum, assuming Leslie started college at age 17 (and turning 18 during the school year), she would have her Bachelors in Gender Studies by 21. Assuming that she took the GRE during her senior year and got accepted directly into grad school (again, tight but possible), then she would have a Masters by age 24 and, if she really hurried, a PhD by age 25.
However, most teaching positions require several years of experience, even for adjuncts. That’s easy for English people, since there are always comp classes, but not so much for specialized fields like Gender Studies.
Plus, Leslie never came off as a “new hire” – she has that laid back, I’ve been doing this for years vibe.
Anyway, I wrote out another several paragraphs using the experiences of myself and others in the academic sphere that i know as examples, but those are just anecdotal, so I removed them as technically irrelevant. The point being that I work at a university very similar to the one presented here and I know people in specialized fields like Gender Studies and it is SUPER HARD to get positions like Leslie has – even intro level ones – right after graduation. It can take upwards of a decade to get to where Leslie is, and she’s only had a year at most.
Leorale
She’s also had some highly distracting life stuff happen, like being married young, coming out, and getting divorced. Didn’t she also face really unsupportive family?
She must’ve had tremendous focus, to not get derailed by all this at any point. Maybe she deals with emotions by throwing herself into her work, and in doing so, impressed the hell out of everyone.
Leorale
Moreover, hasn’t she also been homeless..? When was that, was she getting her Master’s degree from a pal’s couch?
Leslie is a force of nature.
Deathjavu
Yeah it seems like the takeaway from all this speculation and math is that Leslie is a badass.
Not that we didn’t already know that.
vlademir1
Here’s the timeline as I currently picture it…
@14: Leslie comes out to her parents. They are as we’ve seen them in SP! and she pulls a teen runaway bit while continuing to study so she can GED at 18.
@15: Leslie’s parents track her down and make her an offer, submit to an arranged marriage (cf. here for the age) and they’ll sign the waiver for her to GED at 16 and pay for her college. She accepts.
@16: Leslie starts her undergrad pushing herself to finish as quickly as possible. Doing this, in her mind, is a coping mechanism for her stress and an excuse to not engage any more than she has to with her husband. Very late in undergrad she starts getting published, building as much from her experiences as from her education.
@19: Leslie just finishes her undergrad, passes her GRE and gets accepted into her Masters program. Getting her second publication around this point.
@20: Leslie falls into a poor choice relationship with a woman collapsing her marriage and losing the money her parents are paying for her education in the fallout from it even as she continues pushing through her program and trying to find financing to continue.
@21: Leslie finished her Masters and starts her Doctorate amid mounting debt and a completely lost support network. Her situation is probably an open secret in the department at this point.
@23: Leslie finishes her PhD and, due to a solid academic record, publication history and probably making good impressions on the department head at some juncture all in spite of her situation, gets hired in and fast tracked in an exceptionally unusual manner.
@26: Here we are today.
It’s exceptionally implausible, but still technically possible, if only barely. Twenty some years ago someone in Leslie’s position at her age was much easier to explain. One of my friends during college was teaching this type of intro class while finishing his MS. I opted out of his class for a different one when it came up on my schedule just to avoid a potential conflict of interest. That was admittedly in a requisite field however.
BBCC
I still have teachers who are working on their PhDs. Mostly intros or electives but still.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Black market time-turner is my theory.
Julez
I dunno, I had a gender and sexuality professor who was clearly in their mid-20s. I think it was a special course though.
OBBWG