Disappointment
Well, I finally did it: I managed to disappoint the dude who made no demands on me whatsoever. How does that even happen? Why didn't I just pay attention and get my shit straight?
Alessandro B is my Latin professor, the nicest, wittiest, and most charming man in the world, who also (almost paradoxically) happens to be brilliant and inspiring, stimulating in spite of his laidback style. Our class was ridiculously easy, but it was amazing how much pith we were able to get out of the few short passages we read.
Prof. B very well might be my first professorial crush, in all my 5 years at this institution. Unless you count Rene G...which I don't, because that was all cerebral. Prof. B is happily married with teenage kids, middle-aged, silver-haired, and though he isn't chubby or even potbellied, his body looks oddly overburdened for his bone structure. It's hard to describe, because he's a tall guy, and by no means frail-looking, structurally. Anyways, my ponit is that in spite of all that, I adored him! I used to sit in class breathless, eager to hear what brilliant thing he would say next.
I remember, two years ago, talking to a first-year grad student who said that he felt this way about his lectures ("what will he say next!"), and I remember thinking he was off his rocker when he said that. But now! I understand.
But lest you think this is once again a cerebral crush, let me assure you that Prof. B is in fact sexy, in his own way. Mostly, I think it was the charm. The man has charm.
To get back to my original point: yesterday, we took our final exam. I didn't really study for it, because we hadn't made that much progress since the midterm, and I figured what we did cover was an ace in the hole. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that there was one passage that we didn't really get assigned, and instead did a sight-translation of in class. Guess what passage shows up on the final? I was frantic with fear, but I managed to get by.
Prof. B gave me an A, but his comments made me sadder than if he had given me a C. He wrote that he believes in my potential, but was "alarmed" to see how many errors there were in my translation. He concluded by praising my (unspecified) scholarly qualities and advising me to pay more attention to details.
There it is in a nutshell: the details. That's what I've lost in college. Haphazardness and bullshitting, forgetting that the little things matter. What a sterling thing it is that Prof. B can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Nevertheless. I feel blue that I let him down, the one person I did not want to let down this quarter.
Alessandro B is my Latin professor, the nicest, wittiest, and most charming man in the world, who also (almost paradoxically) happens to be brilliant and inspiring, stimulating in spite of his laidback style. Our class was ridiculously easy, but it was amazing how much pith we were able to get out of the few short passages we read.
Prof. B very well might be my first professorial crush, in all my 5 years at this institution. Unless you count Rene G...which I don't, because that was all cerebral. Prof. B is happily married with teenage kids, middle-aged, silver-haired, and though he isn't chubby or even potbellied, his body looks oddly overburdened for his bone structure. It's hard to describe, because he's a tall guy, and by no means frail-looking, structurally. Anyways, my ponit is that in spite of all that, I adored him! I used to sit in class breathless, eager to hear what brilliant thing he would say next.
I remember, two years ago, talking to a first-year grad student who said that he felt this way about his lectures ("what will he say next!"), and I remember thinking he was off his rocker when he said that. But now! I understand.
But lest you think this is once again a cerebral crush, let me assure you that Prof. B is in fact sexy, in his own way. Mostly, I think it was the charm. The man has charm.
To get back to my original point: yesterday, we took our final exam. I didn't really study for it, because we hadn't made that much progress since the midterm, and I figured what we did cover was an ace in the hole. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that there was one passage that we didn't really get assigned, and instead did a sight-translation of in class. Guess what passage shows up on the final? I was frantic with fear, but I managed to get by.
Prof. B gave me an A, but his comments made me sadder than if he had given me a C. He wrote that he believes in my potential, but was "alarmed" to see how many errors there were in my translation. He concluded by praising my (unspecified) scholarly qualities and advising me to pay more attention to details.
There it is in a nutshell: the details. That's what I've lost in college. Haphazardness and bullshitting, forgetting that the little things matter. What a sterling thing it is that Prof. B can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Nevertheless. I feel blue that I let him down, the one person I did not want to let down this quarter.
posted by Rex at 4:25 PM
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