me: - working towards terminal degree, and shortly after arrival:
"I thought I wasn't going to have to pay out [BIG!] money out for this/that/the-other."
division head/mentor:
"Well, we'll have to see about getting those things changed NEXT fall."
me:
"I've asked this amazing/plays-as-well-as-I-do tuba student to cover the outdoor new computer center ribbon-cutting (La Peri Fanfare, SSB, Bankelsangerlieder), because I'd really like to go hear (only thirty miles away, perhaps the last ever) Count Basie/Thad Jones/Mel Lewis daytime concert."
division head/mentor: - in an elevated voice
"YOU AGREED TO TAKE ON CERTAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES BY ACCEPTING THIS JOB, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM. YOU WILL PLAY THOSE THROW-AWAY PIECES IN 48-DEGREE WEATHER, AND YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT HEARING THOSE WORLD-CLASS MUSICIANS" strongly implied: WHO AREN'T EVEN CLASSICAL MUSICIANS."
me: - to myself - "hmm...ok...That's one."
me: throughout the year
to myself: "ok...That's two/three/four/five/six/etc."
me: - two weeks before the end of the spring semester
"btw...I won't be returning next fall."
division head/mentor:
[insults/demeaning comments/cutting criticism/even (yes, really) including "Your old car leaked oil onto the curb in front of my house", and EVEN "I heard you and so-and-so cracking jokes about my former-professor's (meant-to-be-funny) sport coat that they wore at their performance", etc.]
It's AT THAT MOMENT when one tells a professor/boss/whatever that one is leaving...it's that professor's/boss' behavior - again: right then - that either reassures one's decision to leave, or - otherwise - might cause one to second-guess their own decision to leave.
bloke "instantly reassured (though no job prospects lined up) that I was making the correct decision"
*post script:
I'm not-at-all cut out for studio teaching - certainly not institutionally. When a student is getting 100% of an instructor's attention for a full hour every single week, and - in return - that student ONLY gives that "class" the same amount of attention/effort/etc. that they give those classes where - for an hour at a time - one teacher speaks to 20 - 30 - 500 (ex: psychology lecture auditoria, etc.) students (particularly when the student's own product is lackluster, and obviously far less than that of which a student is capable), to me - that defines failure.
I tried it out (again) a couple of decades later (at another large university), worked with very nice colleagues - yet was reminded (once again) of the generally lackluster student effort (again: as a proportion of the attention that they were getting from me and via my efforts), and resigned (though, on very good terms) again, after those two semesters.
my own performance (since those times) repairing instruments, running a no-other-people mom-and-pop, or playing the tuba:
It's JUST ME, and I'm not responsible for anyone's else success.