Oui ou non?

Je suis si confuse parce qu'il y a beaucoup de questions dans ma tete.

J'ai le chanson "Collide" dans ma tete aussi. C'est par Howie Day, et pour quelque raison, les lyriques sont tres signicatif a moi.

Ok, enough French for one entry...despite the fact that it is only a couple of 200-level sentences, nothing more.

So, the chorus to "Collide" says:

Even the best fall down sometimes/ Even the wrong words seem to rhyme/ Out of the doubt that fills my mind/ I somehow find/ You and I collide

Of course, this pertains only and completely to one specific relationship...and my mind is all over the place trying to figure out what to do. If I say something, I risk screwing up the friendship that both he and I have worked so hard to maintain over the years, despite the distance...But, if I don't say something, I risk losing the most amazing person I have ever met to someone else who, when it comes down to it, is probably more deserving of him anyway. But, I am not especially in the mood to dwell on this relationship stuff right now, and anyone who happens to read this will be no more excited to read it than I am to write it...

I think that one of my favorite things about being on campus is to get to know all of the people that most of the others don't seem to notice. I'm not all that impressed with my professors...don't get me wrong, they are amazing in their fields and wonderful people to know, but they're still human. Their crap doesn't smell any better than anyone else's! I enjoy knowing them, but I really enjoy getting to know others: Dan the mailman, for example. He told me last year that I'm one of the few people on campus that he actually likes. I think that, more accurately, I'm one of the few who bother to talk to him about anything other than mail and school. And Al, who I talked to every day in the office last year when he came by to empty the trash, and who I see mopping the hallways every afternoon...And, of course, there's Eddie. Eddie is the sweetest man alive...I call him the King of Pittsburgh. He's our security guard, but he needs hip replacement, and can't run at all. He once told me that a 90-year old woman with a walker moved faster then he. But, then again, he also told me that he would start going to church every Sunday as payment for God because I'm going to be on campus for another 2 years, and that made him so happy.

Why is it that having "Dr." before your name wins you so much respect in this country? I mean, of course it takes loads and loads of work to achieve that level of scholarship, but elementary school teachers are at least as important as higher level teachers. I'm saying this, but still want to ultimately teach at the college level (I think). But, my fourth grade teacher was one of the most important and influential teachers--much moreso than almost every teacher I've had since high school graduation. There are exceptions, of course. Dr. Curme, my econ professor, was hands down the best professor I had at Miami. The class was not easy, but I learned so much and found myself frequenting his office to talk about things--related to econ, but also related to music (he's a big Neil Diamond and Tom Waits fan), farming (you just talk about farming when your school is in the middle of corn fields), and football (Go Browns!). And Dr. Haag, a professor I had while studying in Europe, who taught my Renaissance History and Rise and Fall of Hitler classes with more passion and determination than many of my other professors combined.

In my opinion (humble though it may be), a teacher, at any level, ought to be so excited about the content that he/she is teaching, and ought make an effort to make it at least as exciting and interesting to a student. It is important to allow students to be engaged in their reading, writing, and in every other outlet that is used to convey an idea or movement. Greek was fascinating to me because my professor loved it and because he used a variety of means by which to help us learn it, and because the skills used in there (and, in Exegesis, the critical thinking skills in particular) were applicable in a plethora of other contexts. It wasn't ever just about learning Greek--it was at least as much about learning about life.

I love being 23 (well, almost 24)! I have these unquenchable dreams