Two Days of Self-Discovery

Wednesday and Thursday (Aug 18 and 19) were the first days of classes at UT-K. I drove in hoping to get settled and learn my way around campus better. I am going to need to find a grocery store close to campus since I hate eating out (for financial and health reasons, though mostly financial as I've become a bit of a scrooge lately).

In short, I learned a few things about myself in the first days of class:

1. I love the academic setting: The buzz and excitement of the first day of class was pretty sweet.
2. My Ph.D. program is more about tenacity than intelligence: It's a notion I had all along, but it was affirmed when instructors kept telling us things like "it's okay to feel confused about some topics," and "it's a lot of work, but it's not that difficult," and my favorite "there is no reason to get less than 100% in this class." That's my kind of class.
3. I can teach: I never taught a day in my life before I stood in front of 23 UTK students Wednesday night and started blabbing out the public speaking course, our goals, and how stoked I was to be there.

I also learned that I have a lot of work to do to get through this semester. Not only to take three courses and teach one, but I have my own research to conduct (which I will likely end up wanting to spend the most time on, but in reality, I'll prep for my teaching course more than I should).

Either way, it's going to be an adventure.