While most people measure their lives by milestones such as birthdays, weddings, births or even death. I happen to measure my life in semesters...
I quantify my personal growth (or lack thereof) by what is done in an academic year. This is because for the past 10 years (gasp!!!) I have not been able to get away from NYU. My entire full-time working career has been working here. I transitioned from being a full-time college student to working full-time. At that moment, I did not realize that this decision would change my whole outlook on life. Back then, I was 20 years old, all I thought I was getting was a job that paid well (for someone that lived at home), had great benefits and most importantly free tuition.
But, I think the greatest benefit of working with college kids is the fact that after a year, the annoying ones will move on and then you will get new students, which will be less complicated than the last (hopefully).
So for those of you who are reading this out of your boring cubicle and do not understand this phenomenon, let me give you an example of why you are not cooler than me…
Day in and day out, you have to deal with those annoying co-workers and clients, it is not like next quarter they will be gone. Yeah, you might switch jobs every couple of years or might even get promoted, but the same type of bipolar co-worker will still be there in six months, he/she might even become your boss one day. They unfortunately get their work done and are not crazy enough to be fired, so you are stuck with them. And your life pretty much sucks!!
I, on the other hand get to meet new students every semester, I have the chance to get to know these kids, hear about where they are coming from and how they plan to change the world once they graduate. It's exciting to be a part of that. I would love to be in my old age and read in the newspaper (if we still have newspapers, but don't get me started on that now) that one of our students discovered a new life changing drug or ran for office (and hopefully will not have an affair with a young staffer). I hope that these future accomplishments will make all of the battles and red tape we face in higher education worth it.
For me working with eighteen year olds keeps me young at heart, even though sometimes I may not understand why they find it necessary to hyperventilate at every single bump in the road. I DO hope that in the end we are teaching them skills to prepare them for the "real world".
And most importantly that we are teaching them the coping skills to deal with that annoying bipolar worker in the cubicle next to them...
I quantify my personal growth (or lack thereof) by what is done in an academic year. This is because for the past 10 years (gasp!!!) I have not been able to get away from NYU. My entire full-time working career has been working here. I transitioned from being a full-time college student to working full-time. At that moment, I did not realize that this decision would change my whole outlook on life. Back then, I was 20 years old, all I thought I was getting was a job that paid well (for someone that lived at home), had great benefits and most importantly free tuition.
But, I think the greatest benefit of working with college kids is the fact that after a year, the annoying ones will move on and then you will get new students, which will be less complicated than the last (hopefully).
So for those of you who are reading this out of your boring cubicle and do not understand this phenomenon, let me give you an example of why you are not cooler than me…
Day in and day out, you have to deal with those annoying co-workers and clients, it is not like next quarter they will be gone. Yeah, you might switch jobs every couple of years or might even get promoted, but the same type of bipolar co-worker will still be there in six months, he/she might even become your boss one day. They unfortunately get their work done and are not crazy enough to be fired, so you are stuck with them. And your life pretty much sucks!!
I, on the other hand get to meet new students every semester, I have the chance to get to know these kids, hear about where they are coming from and how they plan to change the world once they graduate. It's exciting to be a part of that. I would love to be in my old age and read in the newspaper (if we still have newspapers, but don't get me started on that now) that one of our students discovered a new life changing drug or ran for office (and hopefully will not have an affair with a young staffer). I hope that these future accomplishments will make all of the battles and red tape we face in higher education worth it.
For me working with eighteen year olds keeps me young at heart, even though sometimes I may not understand why they find it necessary to hyperventilate at every single bump in the road. I DO hope that in the end we are teaching them skills to prepare them for the "real world".
And most importantly that we are teaching them the coping skills to deal with that annoying bipolar worker in the cubicle next to them...
I measure mine via my daughter's age. But let's get you started on the "we still have newspapers" part there. I love newspapers just as much as the next person that enjoys the texture of things, but I do seem them fading away sometime soon.
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