From Nervousness to Clarity: My Experience of the Faculty Dinner

Going into the dinner with faculty event, I had I absolutely no idea what to expect. This was the first time I was going to attend an event anything like this, and it’s safe to say I was pretty dang nervous. In typical anxious fashion I left about thirty minutes in case anything went wrong, which of course nothing did, and showed up with time to spare. I walked in the door, and being 15 minutes early I was one of the first ones there.

Once my nametag was on and all of the professors found their way inside, I instantly recognized one of them as he had been my professor a few quarters back, and was one of my favorites. I always had a gut instinct that we had a lot in common, but never had the chance to test my hypothesis. Of course, his table was the first one I chose to sit at, and I was not disappointed. I never had the chance to go to any of his office hours while I was a student, but I always had heard that he was an interesting guy and I wanted my own crack at asking him some questions.

My goal going into the night was simply asking a professor about his career path, and then seeing how much correlation there is between my personal goals at the moment and their goals at the same age. It’s quite remarkable how sometimes the simplest questions can provide you with the most complex, fascinating answers, and I struck gold on my first try with this professor. As he went through his personal path and his mindset at each point in his life, I realized that my overarching goals were very similar to his. However, my path I was going to take was a little different than the one he took, so I asked his thoughts on my situation. He responded with such intellectual clarity that it made me think that I had planned out my senior year with my eyes closed. Even though the classes I was taking were interesting, the ones I would have missed out on because of them were fundamental to my goals. I promptly went home and hit the redo button on my schedule.

It’s amazing how a simple conversation can open your eyes sometimes. Although the conversation only lasted a quarter of the entire event, I knew the whole night was instantly worth it after it concluded.