A critical challenge during the first years of teaching is defining, forming, and living into a scholarly identity which is healthy, has integrity and is generative for your own scholarly project. This conversation discloses some of the pitfalls and risks when institutions provide little to no mentoring. What does it take to have a common sense and reasonable perspective for being a scholar and for doing scholarship ... over the long haul? What practices might support habits of self-care, creativity, and imagination for sound teaching, scholarship, and service? What is "good" citizenship while on a faculty?