On the joys of academia

Today was the last day of class for the 2005-2006 school year. Toward the end of my accounting class this morning, my professor shocked the class when he got a bit emotional in telling about a conversation he had with his daughter recently (I am not sure whether this happened this year or in a previous school year). He called her on his way home and told her he had a meeting earlier with the dean where he submitted his resignation. She told him that “teaching is your life” and convinced him to retract his resignation the next morning.

The story goes to show that there is something about being in school, either as a student or a professor, that makes it a uniquely satisfying experience which cannot be duplicated elsewhere. I was reminded of this last night when I left Lucy’s and as I rounded the corner of Henderson and Franklin Streets, I ran into this one undergraduate girl and her friend as they were leaving another bar. I had first met them back in November right after the sorority mixer (I had left the mixer and gone across the street to Top Of the Hill to get sobered up before getting into my car) and we have since been randomly running into one another at the various bars along Franklin Street. After seeing the huge line that had formed outside Top Of the Hill, the three of us ended up going to I (heart) NY Pizza to get something to eat.

At the pizza place, we talked about our experiences with school. They will be graduating in about two weeks and talked about their plans for post graduation. I told them the one thing I find most amazing about my college experience (and to a lesser extend, my business school experience) is that you are in a concentrated population of people who are in the same “place” as you are. It’s a great time to build relationships, discover new things about yourself, and have fun along the way. Last Saturday I had a conversation with a second year student and she said she liked her experience at Kenan-Flagler so much she didn’t want to graduate.

I very much would like to be at that place a year from now.