The Wanderlust Threader

A year before I finished my PhD I created my public profile on various social media platforms. The handle was some variation of “Charley Finding Joy.” By this point, I had started contemplating what I would do after the PhD, but mostly, I was trying to discover what brought me genuine joy. Don’t get me wrong - I do love teaching, mentoring students, designing research projects, and other education-related endeavors. But, there has been something missing, so to speak, for many years before I was even nearing the completion of my PhD. Realistically, I had always known-it's writing, photography, and creative endeavors.

The day I passed my dissertation defense, March 20, 2023

That feeling of missing continued even after I finished my PhD, where I constantly asked myself, “What’s next?” and visited this idea quite often, something I pondered briefly in a blog post on my website in the post titled, What's Next? clearly aligned with my ever-agonizing question. However, many other posts had a similar sentiment. The default response in the field is typically to find a tenure-track position in academia, teach, and devote your life to research. Now, this is my goal: I do want to obtain a tenure-track position. However, the inability to bring together my interests or components of who I am always felt like I had to silo not parts of myself.

I remember my advisor once affectionately saying, “Charlene, you are one of the most restless people I know.” And this is true. I am incredibly restless - I tried a 9-5 office job, which chipped away at my soul. That’s part of the appeal of teaching - the interactions and engagement are often different, new, and exciting, even if the subject is the same.

But again, something was missing, which led me to The Wanderlust Threader. I kept struggling, mulling over how I wanted to bring together all of the things that interest me - travel, photography, storytelling and writing, research, critical analysis, parenting, and more - and then asked my best friend for help. After several messages back and forth, we both agreed that the best phrasing to capture who I am is The Wanderlust Threader. That is, I aim to thread together my moments of wanderlust through photography, storytelling, travel, critical analysis, and more. Propelled even more after being notified that I was accepted as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, I realized that research is beautiful and vital to me, but capturing stories is where my heart is. One of my biggest struggles in academia is that I don’t have a way to spin my “specialization,” and I certainly don’t have a niche for the internet; instead, I’m intrigued and invigorated by life, beauty, connection, and the human experience. Essentially, I realize that I have to consciously challenge and transcend socially constructed boundaries that often confine knowledge and identity within rigid frameworks and contribute to our own alienation from ourselves.

I recently met with Dr. Antonia Darder, who has started doing individual coaching. In our coaching session, I initially chose professional goals because she understands the struggle of academia, having been an incredibly successful and globally known educator. But after we spoke for a while, she noticed I had continuously said, “Something is missing.” At that point, she encouraged me to lean into that a little more instead to my “missing” element, rather than simply the professional coaching. As we began talking, I shared that I had never really been in a position to truly pursue the things I wanted in life. Sure, I finished a PhD, and I, of course, made choices - life is filled with them, but I also navigated the world through what I “should” be doing. Music school? Nope. Be a writer? Nope. Live abroad?

Think again.

As we sat there, I thought about what brings me joy in a world that values climbing ladders, a question I’ve been asking myself for some time. And being in a PhD program I gravitated toward solely academia, but what if a PhD can be seen as something more than just a means to an end within a capitalist machine? What if I could find a way to incorporate everything I learned about myself during the program, challenging the restrictions of a singular focus but go beyond the borders of these channels,

So, what is it? It’s writing, time with my family, travel, teaching, writing fantastical adventures, capturing real stories and lived experiences through words and photography, and conducting research that delves into the human essence and the beauty of these stories. This is what I want to do.

Photograph I took March 23, 2023 flying over Central America.

Academia has allowed me to hone some of these skills and see how to engage in various research approaches that can bring about change and impact communities, and I cannot sacrifice my love of writing and storytelling no matter where I am, whether a tenure-track role that allows me to align these or not.

Finding joy is never a destination, nor should it be, but an ongoing reflexive process. The best way for me to do that is to utilize this space to share not only my perpetual wanderlust but also the stories I will thread together as a result of that wanderlust.

So, from now on, I will share my parenting experiences, my moments of travel, my findings across the globe as a Fulbright Scholar, the stories I’ll capture, the place-making I explore and document, the histories of towns and locations, my research and teaching practice, share ideas and suggestions for students (undergrads and grads alike) and more. And while the internet loves a niche, I think that’s mine: not having one.

Welcome to The Wanderlust Threader, where I weave together experiences and insights through writing, research, and photography to challenge and transcend traditional boundaries of knowledge, culture, identity, and geography.

Interested in learning more about my adventures as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, my research, and the stories I capture along the way? Please consider supporting my work by subscribing to my website today.

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