Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Just for Old Time's Sake

A few months ago I was at a Boise Music Week performance. I happened to run into one of my old professors there. We chatted for a bit and caught up on what we were doing with our lives. He knew that I was working as an editor for a local company, and asked me to come in sometime and talk to his editing class in the fall.

I was a bit taken aback. I had always worked pretty hard in class, and did my best to participate, but I never expected to be a guest lecturer. I guess my A's in his classes were well deserved. I walked away smiling with my ego stroked, and wondered if it would ever really happen.

Tomorrow, it will.

A few days ago it really hit me. Dr. Willerton, the current president for the Snake River Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (which I no longer belong to), asked me to come talk to his class. I'm sure that he has a lot of other contacts in the valley who have more editing experience. They could probably do a better job as well. But he asked me to give the presentation.

I just put the finishing touches on my PowerPoint presentation. I feel like it will be a relatively rousing 45 minutes for the class. I hope that they will not be scared of me, eagerly asking questions so that I can impart my meager knowledge to them. Remembering how my three hour lecture classes were, I am guessing that they probably won't be as eager as I am. At least I get them for the first part of the class before their brains are wandering to the social engagements they have planned for 9:00 when class gets over. It should be a fun experience.

Wish me luck tomorrow. It will be fun to walk the halls and smell the dust from the Liberal Arts Building once again. Who knows, I might even go take a peek at the pictures in the halls from the photography students like I used to on break. Just for old time's sake.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fun! I hope it all goes (went?) swimmingly.

I was pretty darned good at tech comm, I think, but my experience was forever tainted by two TC profs at our school. One hated me from the moment I walked into his room because I wore a tshirt from his alma mater's rival university. He gave me such a hard time all semester that I dreaded coming to his class. Another - and let me point out that I was VERY good at what he taught and turned in all A-level work on time - refused to write me a letter of recommendation because he thought I was a slacker. I can't help but think that they massively contributed to my decision not to pursue TC as a career.

Lana said...

Have fun! You will be great, you always kept the ladies in the beauty shop interested.

Johnny said...

didyouhavejuice:
Wow. I will have to see who those professors are. It is a pretty small program, so I have my guesses, but I'll have to verify.

Johnny said...

To keep people entertained (and because I am a proud dad), I had to throw in a bunch of pictures of Munchkin. I have a few different slides with her face plastered all over them to hook any grandmas that might be in the class right from the get-go.