This week I had the pleasure of going back to Duke, which I always love! I was asked to be on an alumni panel for the engineering school.
Yes, you read correctly. I was asked to be on an alumni panel.
I KNOW. It's crazy right?! I mean, I know I give advice to students almost every day as a part of my job, but usually it's along the variety of "Can you force add me to this class?" or "Which of these advanced electives is the easiest?" or "What do you mean I can't graduate on time?!"
I honestly never thought that I would actually be asked to be on a panel of alumni doling out pearls of wisdom for students on my stellar career. I was a pretty middle-of-the-road student at Duke and I've had anything but a conventional path after leaving there. But it turns out that I have had some pretty useful experiences to reflect on.
One of the questions was about mentors. At first, this one tripped me up a little bit. Without a clear career path, I've never really sat back and thought of who has been most influential in my professional life. I've had some good bosses, but I wouldn't say that any of them really shaped my future. Then I thought of one of my professors who clearly affected my life: Dr. J. He kept me interested in engineering, he was the first college professor to show that he cared, he was a great teacher, and he was respectful, funny, and smart. I had him for 2 or 3 classes and it was in one of these classes that I had my first all-nighter.
Actually it was an all-four-nighter. I was awake for four days. Straight. OK, I took one 1-hour nap and one 2-hour nap in that time, but I was awake for 93 out of 96 hours.
Diet of choice? Doritos and diet snapple.
Hallucinations? Numerous. My friend Cat's favorite was the one where I thought there were fairies all around my room. Yes, I know they weren't real but that doesn't mean I didn't see them.
But it was all worth it. The project I was working on turned out great (even though I sacrificed studying for a final exam or two along the way) and it was probably the most satisfied and accomplished, academically, that I felt in my whole time there. It wasn't because I had my best grades that semester, but because someone showed that they believed in me when I didn't. I was frustrated with the project and Dr. J didn't coddle me, but he knew how to bring out the best work in me. He turned someone who was slightly apathetic into someone who was extremely determined and motivated.
Sometimes our biggest accomplishments and character-builders come from just building relationships and taking time to let people help beyond just directing your work or teaching you facts in a classroom.
From the second I got on that campus as a freshman, I felt a lot of pressure to be successful. And it was such an incredibly competitive environment that it made me question and, frankly, underestimate my own intelligence. My confidence went from shaky to almost zero. That's where Dr. J came in and whether he realized it or not, he encouraged me to believe and see that I was as smart as he thought I was.
I don't know what he's doing now (though I do know that he's no longer in academia) or if he realizes how much he affected my life. My best way to pay tribute to him is to try to pay it forward and try to bring out the best in others. I'm not the smartest teacher that my students will have, but I hope that I can help them be the best that they can be, because you never know when that middle-of-the-road student will be on the verge of calling it quits or thinking that they're less than they are.
