life...recently

Remember when you were a college student? You worked really hard for a semester, studied mad hours for a few days leading up to finals, and dug into final tests with abandon? Remember the feeling you had after the last final you took--the feeling of walking out of the classroom with nothing floating in your head except ideas about how you would allow your brain cells to relax and enjoy?

Yeah, those were the days.

Now I get to be the professor who works like mad an extra week longer to assign grades. What was I thinking when I assigned third-year graduate students a semester-long writing project to be turned in the final day of class? The students have put in good work--and now I'm putting in my own good work.

Today I've learned about the following topics:

• Terrorism
• Bonds and stocks
• College student success as it relates to extracurricular activities
• Continued funding for the Life Sciences Learning Center
• The business of ice cream

If I didn't have to assign a grade to all of this, I would be more fully rejoicing in all the learning that is taking place within my OWN head. My students are amazing, and I am proud of their work.

But I better get back to all that grading.