I love school!
I know that this fact alone puts me in a vast minority. But I don't care - I love it!
I have been anticipating getting back to 'normal' for months now. Being in classes really does feel normal to me.
Jason and I were talking yesterday about my crazy love of college and how I passionately want to teach at a college and how those things contrasted the fact that anyone who knows me, knows that I don't really like college students. I catch myself saying it all the time! As I have pondered this tidbit today I came to a stark realization: I really like college students when they are attending classes. It is all the other behavior that makes me nuts! But I can't really blame them because what else do they have to do outside of classes but to get obsessed with their social lives or their bodies or their hair or whatever. I mean, think about how much time I spend working (40 hours a week) plus being a wife and mommy (every other spare second). What do college students have to fill their lives - themselves and their friends! No wonder... This revelation has brought me so much peace as I began classes today. For me it is always more about understanding behavior than the actual behavior itself.
So, back to why I do like college students:
1. The must consume at least 3 gallons of water a day. Everyone on campus had a bottle of water in their hand.
2. They are quick to walk anywhere. They aren't in the habit of driving everywhere they go. If it is in walking distance, and sometimes when it isn't, they just go!
3. Speaking of extra walking- they are not so caught up in being so efficient that they get bent out of shape about walking somewhere else when they get there or walking back to where they just came from to accompany a friend. I like that!
4. They wear sensible shoes. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the walking. Unlike me who wore boots with heals because I was worried about the ice today (My only boots happen to have heals- I thought it wouldn't be that bad- I was incorrect). I am jumping on this band-wagon.
5. They can appreciate a good pair of jeans. And they will wear them and wear them and wear them. I am just jealous.
6. They actually are extending a good bit of respect to the professor by turning their phones on silent and not touching them for 75 minutes. The generation that I tend to share a classroom with is a plugged-in generation. They are rarely unplugged from every move of every friend. It is effort for them to unplug and give someone their full attention. I was pleasantly surprised to not see a single phone out during a single class.
7. When it comes to finding your class or making sure they are in the right room - they just ask until someone knows the answer. They don't let self-consciousness or fear keep them from being in the right place. Not to mention, they are quick to announce the information they have discovered to anyone who will listen!
8. Things I think I have known forever can be brand new information to them. Second only to learning something for the first time myself, I adore watching it happen to someone else.
9. They create this whole other little world while on campus. I have a feeling it is because of the tendency for the world to revolve around you when you are in college, but it is cool. I like most the fact that I get to be a close observer and a small part of it all at the same time.
Anyway, all of my babbling to say: I love school! I feel normal and at home in a classroom. I count it a great privilege to sit in a lecture and listen to someone unfold an idea that is totally new to me. That kind of learning is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It happened tonight during my Era of Segregation class. It made my heart beat really hard and had me sitting on the edge of my chair the rest of the class. It is my kind of high. Lucky for me, I don't know anything yet!
It is going to be a challenging quarter seeing as how 3 of my 4 classes double as graduate classes, but I am so ready to take on the challenge!
I love school!
