“Oh, yes! Nice to meet you, Mr. DeMarco. I’m Tiffany. If you want to have a seat, I’ll go grab Janet for you. I believe she’s who you’ve been corresponding with regarding your position.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

I’ve barely sat down before a middle-aged woman with a library bun waltzes out with a giant smile plastered on her face. “You must be Mr. DeMarco?”

“Yes, hi. Janet?” I ask, shaking her hand.

“That’s me. It’s so great to meet you. Come, we can get your paperwork situated, and then I can show you around the campus, including your classroom.”

“Sounds great. Lead the way.”

We head down the skinny walkway to an office that’s four doors down on the left. Her office is bright and smells like lemons. It’s warm, and she has pictures in frames scattered around the room. I take a seat in front of her desk as she takes her seat behind the desk.

“We’re so pleased to have you join our faculty, Mr. DeMarco.”

“Well, thank you. I’m very excited to be here. And please, call me Cash.”

She smiles, setting a stack of papers in front of me. “Alright, Cash it is. You just finished your PhD, yes?”

“Yes, ma’am. In the spring.”

“That’s fantastic. Congratulations. That’s quite the accomplishment. If you want to start working on those, let me know if you have any questions.”

She gets to work on her computer, tap-tapping away, while I work my way through the dozens of hiring papers. They probably could’ve sent these to me electronically and had me complete this before now, but whatever. It takes me about twenty minutes before I sign the very last page, shoving them across the desk toward her.

“You’re quick, Cash. Thank you.” She thumbs through them, presumably making sure I got to everything. Once she seems pleased that I completed my task correctly, she paperclips them, setting them in a bin on the side of her desk. “Alright, let’s get on with the tour.”

“Sounds good, ma’am.”

She shows me all around the campus—where the cafeteria is, where my classroom will be, where supplies can be found. The tour takes about an hour—she’s chatty—and we head back toward the office.

“The dean should be in by now, and he’ll want to meet you. He just got back this morning, so he doesn’t even know about you yet. He’ll be excited. We’ve been wanting to fill this position since last semester, and you seem like the perfect one to do that.”

“Awesome. Look forward to meeting him,” I respond sincerely.