College Campuses

At this time of the year, the early college campus flurry has begun. New students-- first-year wet behind the ear just out of high schoolers and their parents-- are making their way to campuses for "orientation day." They wander through the bookstores, excited about the textbooks, thinking of what they're going to learn, who they're going to meet, what they're going to do with their lives. Their parents are excited too-- partly they remember their own days of college, or, if they didn't attend, their own desires to do so or their own struggles to get here (paying for their kids to attend, make themselves more prosperous).

There's this sense of wonder that will fade after just a semester for most of them. When I teach college first-year students, they are so happy those first few days, eager. Their eyes look at you--their professor-- with awe-- wow. You made it-- you're not an old fart who they can't relate to. You're a young teacher, and that means that life isn't that far away from them now. After just one semester, you'll start getting excuses--the dog ate my floppy disc; you're a bad teacher for not telling me to read the syllabus more carefully; my Grandma is really sick. Grandmas don't do so well during final exam period. If you yourself are a Grandma, it's probably best you don't leave the house when your Grandkids have finals, or last papers to write. It's a dangerous time.

I love college campuses. This is why I have made it my life to work on them for the rest of my career. I haven't been a grad student for this long just because I'm procrastinating. That's part of it-- but it only adds a year or two to the quest. I love the sense of ideas in the air. I love hearing people discuss politics, or history, or art, with that fervor you only get from the young. Older students tend to sound different-- they are a little more cautious as a rule, cause they know how hard it was to get there. Their fervors are for other things.

I miss this right now. Since I'm not teaching, and I rarely go to campus because my research & writing is all "remote campus" I don't see this very often. I went to campus today to return a dozen books that have been overdue for a lonnnnng time before the library police came with their German Shepards and big black flashlights and jackboots kicking in doors in the middle of the night. I thought how cool it will be when I am finally done with my PhD and my campus time this time of year will be in my own office, with syllabi and "committee meetings." And those eager young eyes waiting to learn. It's not far now. And I'm really getting there. So perhaps I'm just as eager and excited as those first year kids and their parents. Even if I don't look it, look jaded to them as I walk along briskly, not gaping at every new thing, not taking the brochure/flyer from the campus group hawking something.

We're all freshman of a sort. Even if we aren't on campus doing it. Perhaps we should try really hard to retain that sense of wonder. I know today I will.