Yoga IS A PRAYER

by Kellyn McGee

January 1, 2012. I was on a girls’ trip in the mountains, celebrating and planning for the new year. That day, I decided I was moving to Savannah. By the end of the year. My girls questioned my timeline: why not by summer? Well, because I didn’t have a job in Savannah and I owned a house, I was giving myself the year to clear those hurdles.

I began a job search, including submitting my resume to the dean of an Atlanta law school opening a campus in my soon-to-be home. A friend taught at the school and we timed my submission so that she could sing my praises to the dean and associate dean. I emailed my resume on January 31st. Before 8 a.m. on February 1st, the dean responded: no. Friends read his response as “not now.” Oh, well.

Undeterred from my plan to live in Savannah, a friend and I went on a reconnaissance road trip. I looked at apartments on my list. We went to the location where the law school would be (we might have breached a fence around the property.) We enjoyed seeing the city not just as tourists. When I returned home, I continued applying for jobs.

On March 1st, the dean emailed, asking if I was still interested in a faculty position. We (with the associate dean) met for breakfast on March 6th. By 9:00 that morning, I’d received a job offer. With a start date of July 1st. Summer.

Without really looking for it, my dream career happened upon me. Working for the law school, in either administration or on the faculty, seemed like a cool and interesting job, just like all the others I’d applied to. I became one of the founding faculty of Savannah Law School and later served as the dean of students for a three-year appointment. With all the growing pains and uncertainty in a role I’d never really considered and had only seen as a student, I fell in love with my job.

Then. In March 2018 the board of directors announced Savannah Law would be closing. To fully understand my devastation, know that I still get a pang in my heart about all we accomplished and what was taken away from us. The relationships I made with faculty and administration. The joy to help grow those students into successful lawyers, many of whom still call me “Dean” or “Professor,” even when I say “Kellyn” to them. Being a part of the audaciousness of what that “little school that could” did: becoming accredited in two years when it was supposed to take four; hosting two major conferences within the first year; recruiting students from across the country, including Alaska and Hawaii; establishing such a reputation in legal academia that deans and faculty wanted to join us.

It is momentous that I began practicing yoga while I lived in Savannah. With the encouragement of two of my yoga teachers, I enrolled in teacher training in order to go further in my practice, not in the sense of learning all the advanced postures, but to really understand and adapt all aspects of the practice to my life, on and off the mat. There was no way for me to know that, within a year of my completing the training, Savannah Law would be on its way to closure. It was easy to go to yoga classes at studios to try to move some of the stress out of my body.

But the training showed me how to sit with all that was happening and how to move through it. And I had a lot to move through.

In July 2019, I put teaching in the rear-view mirror, thinking, “That was a wonderfully fantastic adventure.” I moved back home and settled into my next job. I know now that my moving then was not accidental or inconsequential. In fact, it was divine timing that I would move home shortly before the world shut down and my brother and I would be able to tagteam doing the grocery shopping and running other errands for my parents. I was supposed to be home at that moment in time.

In early 2021, I started wondering what I wanted for my career and whether the job I had was where I wanted to be for the long term. I sought out women in their 50s and 60s to talk about whether I could pivot “at my age,” particularly with my non-linear resume. I heard a friend say about her job, “It’s the most rewarding and challenging job I’ve ever had.” I thought, “I want that.” Then I realized I had it when I was on the faculty of the law school. That’s where I was supposed to be. I heard all the advice I’d gathered, plucked that dream out of the rear-view, and said, “Maybe it isn’t too late.”

Getting a tenure-track teaching position is not an easy process or without stress, especially for someone looking to return after being out for a while. In August 2022, I was officially “on the market,” hoping, praying, dreaming that I would rejoin the profession I loved. I started counting the number of schools I applied to but never heard from and the number of requests for interviews I declined and the number of interviews I did have and again the number that I didn’t hear from after the interview. This was a terrible exercise but I couldn’t stop myself.

And then. In December 2022, I accepted an offer at a school in Pennsylvania! It’s still a little surreal that I’m moving and starting anew (kinda) “at my age.” I’m reminded of the love song “Reunited.” And it feels so good.