I don’t earn a ton of money. However, I love what I do, and I believe it’s more important to do something you love and at which you are good than something that earns you a certain amount of money. In the end, you have to love what you do more than you love the money to make it work, which is mostly why my ex-wife’s business ultimately failed.
My students have paid me several compliments over the course of this semester. At the end of class the first week, one of my students told me that he’d worried it would be another boring class from a lame professor but that I was actually pretty cool. Another student who came in for extra help once told me that she could tell that I was passionate about what I do; that it showed that I was not just there for the money.
At the end of every semester, I take memories with me. Back in graduate school, it annoyed my Principle Investigator that I devoted so much time to the students. Fact of the matter was, I devoted time to the things I enjoyed, and as much as I love learning, I loved teaching more than the research rigmarole. My students get nicknames, they’ve brought me cookies, we know about each other’s personal lives, and we acknowledge each other outside of class. One of them even asked me for a letter of recommendation, and one asked me in November what class I was teaching so she could take my class again (it didn’t work out, but it was flattering).
Unfortunately, some of them turn to me for advice and extra help too late. Many of them wait until the last possible minute to get my help, and ten weeks into class, there’s little I can do. Even if they just learn how to do better when they retake this course next semester, I feel like my students actually learn something, and science, and what it teaches us, becomes real to them.
Besides that, I have made myself an asset by being willing to teach these lab courses. Some of the full time faculty hate teaching the classes I teach, and since most have families, they don’t want to teach early morning or late at night, almost vouchsafing for me courses to teach in perpetuity.
I feel like I’m making a difference, and I’m meeting a whole slew of people who learn not only the subject matter but also from my personality. My best friend in High School made a comment recently:
My students have paid me several compliments over the course of this semester. At the end of class the first week, one of my students told me that he’d worried it would be another boring class from a lame professor but that I was actually pretty cool. Another student who came in for extra help once told me that she could tell that I was passionate about what I do; that it showed that I was not just there for the money.
At the end of every semester, I take memories with me. Back in graduate school, it annoyed my Principle Investigator that I devoted so much time to the students. Fact of the matter was, I devoted time to the things I enjoyed, and as much as I love learning, I loved teaching more than the research rigmarole. My students get nicknames, they’ve brought me cookies, we know about each other’s personal lives, and we acknowledge each other outside of class. One of them even asked me for a letter of recommendation, and one asked me in November what class I was teaching so she could take my class again (it didn’t work out, but it was flattering).
Unfortunately, some of them turn to me for advice and extra help too late. Many of them wait until the last possible minute to get my help, and ten weeks into class, there’s little I can do. Even if they just learn how to do better when they retake this course next semester, I feel like my students actually learn something, and science, and what it teaches us, becomes real to them.
Besides that, I have made myself an asset by being willing to teach these lab courses. Some of the full time faculty hate teaching the classes I teach, and since most have families, they don’t want to teach early morning or late at night, almost vouchsafing for me courses to teach in perpetuity.
I feel like I’m making a difference, and I’m meeting a whole slew of people who learn not only the subject matter but also from my personality. My best friend in High School made a comment recently:
I can only imagine the impact you are having on the students as a professor Doug! Perhaps that is what the Lord had in mind for you... not that your personal agency was ever negated, but that he knew that was where you could do the most good and be happiest. :)
I thank God for curbing my original plan and putting me into a place where I do something I love for an honorable wage.
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