Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Still Got It
Yesterday I went back to the University of Virginia to present a guest lecture in a class. I went to UVA for my undergraduate education, of course, so going back there to teach -- even for just an hour -- is a big deal. UVA was the defining place in my life, an experience that created a new "me" and set me on the path to the great life I've enjoyed these last 20 years. Also, I did not have the best grades there, so teaching something is, shall we say, a little ironic.
I gave a class on combating terrorism. One interesting part of this is that the last time I spoke at UVA was back in November 2001, on the same topic. The 9/11 attacks had happened only a couple months earlier and my presentation focused on the likely US response. I had a chance last week to go back through my notes from that discussion and see which of the things i predicted came true and which ones I missed. Hmmmm, invasion of Iraq...didn't see THAT one coming.
It's kind of cool to go back and be welcomed by the students as something of a University success story, even though many of my classmates have done far greater things than I. I like that because, where I used to teach in Colorado, returning alumni were often met with a "so what?" attitude from the students. Here, they made me feel like I still belonged, and they looked up to me. And that was nice.
Adrian was in town that day, he is on a driving tour of the South this week, so we had lunch at a restaurant just outside the University grounds (Adrian is a graduate as well). It was a little disturbing to hear the "oldies" radio station in the restaurant playing music from my college years. Then again, maybe it wasn't an "oldies" station, maybe it just played music from the 80s. Because I'm still a little too young to have my music referred to as "oldies."
I gave a class on combating terrorism. One interesting part of this is that the last time I spoke at UVA was back in November 2001, on the same topic. The 9/11 attacks had happened only a couple months earlier and my presentation focused on the likely US response. I had a chance last week to go back through my notes from that discussion and see which of the things i predicted came true and which ones I missed. Hmmmm, invasion of Iraq...didn't see THAT one coming.
It's kind of cool to go back and be welcomed by the students as something of a University success story, even though many of my classmates have done far greater things than I. I like that because, where I used to teach in Colorado, returning alumni were often met with a "so what?" attitude from the students. Here, they made me feel like I still belonged, and they looked up to me. And that was nice.
Adrian was in town that day, he is on a driving tour of the South this week, so we had lunch at a restaurant just outside the University grounds (Adrian is a graduate as well). It was a little disturbing to hear the "oldies" radio station in the restaurant playing music from my college years. Then again, maybe it wasn't an "oldies" station, maybe it just played music from the 80s. Because I'm still a little too young to have my music referred to as "oldies."
Labels: Teaching
