48 Days

So I made it through my first week of being a college professor!  It was a tough week, but I'm proud to say that I didn't cry!  (Although I did make a student cry.  We are not allowed to accept any students from the wait list and one student cried when I told her she had to find a different class that was accepting students!)

My first class was on Monday in Elkhart and I was a nervous wreck, but I managed to talk through my syllabus, have each student introduce themselves, and have them do a writing exercise.  I couldn't find my office and then couldn't get the copy machine to work.  It was a rough day and I was ready to get home as soon as my office hours were over.

Tuesday was a much better day because I already knew what to expect.  As I walked in the classroom for the first time, a girl looked at me and asked, "Are YOU the professor?"  (What does that mean!?)  I also had three different people ask me how old I was.  I wanted to say, "Hey, we are here to learn about English, not talk about my personal life!"  Did I mention no one knows how to say my last name so they just point at me and say "hey" until I acknowledge them?  Yep, this is my first semester as a teacher.

My week was filled with grading first-day writing exercises, writing up daily lesson plans, revising my assignment schedule, and preparing for my graduate classes.  My first class was poetry writing on Wednesday evening.  This is my second time taking it with the same professor (you can take the creative writing classes more than once and they count for credit toward your masters) and it was great, as usual.  I've already written two poems since class last Wednesday.  It's great to be back doing what I love.

My other graduate class is a film course on Thursday evenings.  I already know I'm going to enjoy this class because I love watching films and learning about them!  And my professor for that class is the head of the English department, so technically she is my boss.  Crazy!  I managed to talk to her after class and she is going to help me find substitutes to teach my classes for the week of October 22nd when Justin and I are on our honeymoon.

My amazing fiance took me out for a wonderful "date day" on Friday to celebrate my first week of teaching and the beginning of his last semester of college!  He took me to dinner and a movie and we talked about wedding plans and laughed together like little kids.  Did I mention that we got our marriage license?  (I wanted to get that out of the way before we start renovating our new apartment and moving so we didn't forget!)  Justin makes my heart so happy and I am truly one lucky girl.

Our wedding is 48 days away and our apartment is now vacated so we can get in there, start working on it, and begin moving stuff over.  I can't wait for October.

An old photo of Justin and I that I dug up.  This was taken while we were on a missions trip together in Panama City Beach, Florida, back in March 2010.