Accelerated Adolescence

What makes it worth it

This semester is treating me poorly. I've overloaded myself in an attempt to graduate early (which isn't going to happen, even if I only take one credit hour next semester, I'll still be here). Also, the classes are challenging and in areas that I am not familiar with more than basically. Furthermore, this week was the start of this semester's exams, with a Bang! This morning I took my second test in about 15 hours and tomorrow I have another one. It wouldn't have been a problem but I got a nasty cold last weekend and was mostly incapacitated. I wasn't able to study nearly as much as I wanted or needed.

But there is something that makes it all worth it. Teaching. It's been some time since I've put together a lesson plan of any sort and delivered it. To be honest, in Gambia, Helen was the star. I just showed up when she practically killed herself when she was messing around with malaria ("Malaria, Just Say NO!"). But, now, I'm developing my own content for students, putting together handouts, grading their work (for the professor's lecture). Even though I'm basing my classes off of the content in the main lecture, he's made it very clear that he thinks of my review sessions as entirely autonomous. What's even better is that I don't have to evaluate the students for the review sessions, so they're free to vary as the students feel is necessary. Sometimes, I'll wander on tangents about familywise error rates or complain about the English language in my classic "bomb, tomb, comb," plaint. In total, about a fourth of the class is attending my reviews and I'd like to think that it's because I'm a decent teacher rather than the more probable reality, they're bad at math and need all the help that they can get.

I'm going to just bask in my own self-aggrandizing denial for a few moments and believe all that stuff that I just wrote. mmmmmm... it feels pretty good.

Anyhow, it does motivate me to know that there are students who are really benefitting from my course. There are even a number of students who have taken some of my advice about preparing for grad school. Also, a few students are joining the rape crisis victim advocate program through my propaganda (i.e. class announcement). Mostly, I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile rather than sitting in class and thinking to myself, by attending this class I am choosing to make my own education a priority of say, finding a way to prevent the further spread of A.I.D.S. in Africa. I feel a little bit like, maybe I'm also having a tiny future impact on the incidence of A.I.D.S. in Africa, too (even though, when I get out of the hot tub of self-aggrandizement, It'll probably just be a chilly Norwegian winter and A.I.D.S. in Africa will be the frigid hundred yard dash that I'll have to run to get back to the house).