Shaping the future, take one

Today is my first day teaching at MC, and it's been fairly eventful.

Predictably, I overslept and underestimated the horror that is morning traffic, so I was frazzled and running crazy late. It took me over an hour to go the ten miles from my house to the parking garage. The faculty parking lot was a war zone. I actually had someone mouth "What...the....fuck!!!!" at me when I turned in (she wasn't actually in a lane) all slow motion-style, just like in the movies. And so I was 15 minutes late to class (awesome first impression). Then, the department chair neglected to leave the syllabus for the class for me as he promised, so I showed up, 15 minutes late, sweaty and frazzled, with no syllabus. What did I find when I arrived? All of my students (amazing - apparently they don't know about the 15 minute rule) and a locked classroom. Which I don't have a key to. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my class was "that" class today. We've all been on the other side, watching the idiotic young professor who tries to make jokes to cover up for their incompetence. Today, that idiotic young professor was me.

So, that was a bust. I let them leave, and used the next hour to figure out how to fill an hour and 15 minutes without a syllabus, and the mysteries of unlocking the door. I accomplished both, and my second class was fantastic. I LOVE the kids. They're from all over the world, they don't have entitlement scrawled all over their faces like students at places I've taught in the past. They actually did what I asked them to do, and seemed to have fun doing it. They seem kind of excited to be in school. It made me remember that I do in fact like teaching. So, we'll see how tonight's class goes, but I'm jazzed about it.

The end.