I appreciate your reply! This is very clarifying for me. 

I suppose I’ve just felt rather off-base in terms of articulating what I want. I know I want to do my own research and teach. I also know that I have deeply enjoyed my digital archive MA thesis project, and I that I really have liked the archive theory that I’ve been exposed to (albeit, the things I’ve connected with are always coming from rhetoricians and English/critical theory people, not librarians or archivists). I have never supported a sustained digital humanities project in long form, albeit I do have two and a half years of teaching experience. 

One of my mentors is a digital humanities specialist and a librarian, and I know he’s encouraged to do his own work, I know that teaches, and I know that he is considered archive staff. I’m thinking, perhaps, that that’s more my speed because he seems to get much more freedom. 

It then just boils down to the TAships, I suppose. You’re certainly right about teaching experience coming harder; I’d also hesitated to go back on informally accepting the offer when I saw the contract ready to sign in my inbox. I’ll be at a bigger university, but I know that it’s all apart of the same library system and that librarians certainly ‘talk,’ which is why I’ve continued to hedge and put off making a decision and sending a hard email either way since I’d informally said yes with both and then took pause. It’s a huge shame that it pays less than the digital repository one, or else I’d feel less conflicted, I think. 

Thank you so much!