The Professor

The phone rang last Tuesday at 3:30 in the afternoon, and I had absolutely no clue who would have been calling at that time. Usually the only calls we get around then are from the doctor’s office, the dentist’s office, bill collectors… you know the type. So when I answered the phone and the person on the other end asked for me by my given name I assumed it must have been one of the aforementioned group of 3:30-type callers. But it wasn’t.

The lady on the other end of the line identified herself as the assistant dean of whatever, and my brain suddenly started moving a mile a minute, racing desperately to catch up to the conversation that seemed to have gone on without me. There was something about being an adjunct professor, and was I still interested, and could I work days, and when could I come in for a meeting. It was a lot to process in such a short period of time (she had been on the phone for a grand total of two minutes by that point), but my brain just did make it in time for me to say

“Yes” (to if I was still interested)

“Yes” (to if I could work days)

and “Tomorrow” (to when I could come in for a meeting)

Now, I had been to about a million of these type of meetings, where they say they’re interested but then something falls through. It’s a meet-and-greet where everyone’s glad-handing and back-patting, but what really comes from those? But I was wrong yet again. This wasn’t one of those meetings at all. This was a meeting of the minds, a place where two needs met and made a dynamic plan together. Indeed, before I left the room on Wednesday I was officially an adjunct professor at Mohawk Valley Community College.

Wow.

So I start this new semester barely a week after that meeting — tomorrow is when it begins for me. It’s been a whirlwind, filling out all this paperwork, playing catch up to all the other adjuncts who have been motoring along all summer towards this purpose. But I’m good with all of that. The adrenaline and the excitement of SOMETHING NEW is driving this bus now, and it isn’t letting go of me anytime soon. Once I’m in front of that class tomorrow — teaching — I know that’s where I belong. It’s my calling, and I can’t wait to get it started.

Now, am I going to have them call me Professor? Still thinking about that one.

Sam