No more grumpy
John Steinbeck once wrote, in The Winter of Discontent, "What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately."So, I have spent a large portion of this week (and last week) complaining about my WRITE 298 Prof. He is, in my short undergrad career, the most self indulging, narcissistic, yet, insecure prof I have ever had. Today's class proved to be no different - we sat and listened to him talk about everything that he knew in all areas _except_non - fiction writing; which is the topic of this course. As I was walking out of the classroom though, I decided on something. I'm going to like him, regardless. Do I find it creepy that he asked my cousin out on a date when she was 19 and his english 101 student? Yes. Do I hate that it's been 2 weeks of class and we still don't have a syllabus? Completely. Do I bring extra reading material to the class when he starts to digress about 80s pop music? Well...no - but I always regret my lack of foresight and misplaced optimism.
The thing is, it's easier to like someone than to dislike them. When you dislike someone, you spend all your time picking apart their idiosyncracies and why it bugs you. If you like them, you just accept it for what it is and you move on. It may be tiresome watching him pretend to pole vault across the room and imitate a ballerina, but if it were anyone else that I liked who was doing the same thing, it would have been comedic. Right? I believe that you're only going to get out of something as much as you put into it. I can walk into that classroom and sit in the back row with my mcgrumpy water, and my supersized serving of mcrolly eyes, but that's all I'm gonna get.
The fact of the matter is, he has something to teach me and I'm going to learn it. I'm never going to find out how interesting he is if I keep dismissing him as some self-loving middle aged guy who's desperately clinging onto his youth. So, starting tomorrow ( or I guess, today), I'm going to walk into that classroom with a better attitude intact and talk my little heart out - or as much and as loudly as my infected throat will let me.
posted by Joyce @ 12:44 AM
2 Comments:
bravo!:)elle
So after Straight Pride Guy went crazy and attacked the blind kid, we changed classrooms. But the room is booked starting next week, so we're going back to our old room. Much closer to where I park, so I'm happy. Anyway, he asked us a reflection question about what is sacred to us, and people gave answers like "nature" and "family." He then asked us to write a haiku from the perspective of experiencing this sacredness. We will each read our haikus before re-entering our old classroom Tuesday morning as part of a ceremony of reclaimation. When he said the word "haiku," I rolled my eyes. He saw, and the following coversation played out:
Prof: Are you rolling your eyes?
Me: Yes.
Prof: *in a stoner-surfer-kinda voice* Totally!
I like my McRollyEyes and do not envy you the difficult task you have ahead of you of trying to like a flaky prof.
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