“Kind of surreal.”

By Congress 2009 • May 22, 2009 • No Comments

Jeff Francom Jeff Francom, Masters of Education student at Nipissing University, ON, writes…

As a college teacher, I have often advertised the value of extra education to my students. About 3 years ago, I decided to ‘eat my own cooking’, taking my own advice and returning to school, albeit part-time. 6 MEd courses and a couple of years later, I am completing my thesis and presenting my findings at the Graduate Student panel on Monday.

So here I am, an ‘old guy’ amongst youngsters, a man whose kids are nearly the same age as some of my peers in class, attending the Congress at my children’s university… kind of surreal. Being asked to present my findings should not make me nervous as I have been teaching college for 11 years now, yet the ‘newness’ of the experience is causing some butterflies. Not knowing how to take the last 6+ months of research and compress it into 10 minutes, being certain of what I have found but uncertain of the best way to present it, even considering if I take the O Train or drive to campus from my kids’ house… so many new variables to handle.

Having said that, I am also, in the words of my students, pumped to be attending such a neat event. Mingling with so many people with so many different backgrounds and areas of expertise is really exciting! Hearing and learning, seeing, absorbing, experiencing so many great things, I hardly know where to begin. I want to be there now but I have work to do at home before I can leave. I will get there as soon as possible Sunday, try to wrap my mind around it so I am ready for Monday… and then before I know it, Monday will be here and gone and I will have to return to North Bay for meetings at work on Tuesday. What a whirlwind the next few days will be!

So – I wonder how the rest of the Congress world is feeling? Excited? Scared? Thrilled? Feeling like you can influence your corner of the world to be a little better? I hope so, because I’d hate to be alone in feeling that way.

“Kind of surreal.”

Posted in Congress 2009 •