Just busy

Summer classes and research are just keeping me busy here. I guess that's a good thing.

One thing I will note about the summer classes, something I've noticed over the years: the students, by and large, are more POLITE than during the regular semester.

I don't know why that is. I don't know if it's a different sort of person who takes summer school classes, or if it's just that the classes are smaller and it's harder to be an anonymous face in the crowd. (I actually lean towards the former explanation; I think summer students are often more diligent and mature students and that might also influence other areas of their behavior).

Anyway, they're just nice. Polite. They're kind to one another in class, they help each other out. They're nice to me. When we go out in the field for lab, they see to it that I don't wind up carrying any of the equipment - and they don't leave equipment behind. (And yes, once or twice I've had to go back and look for something where everyone did the "I thought George had it" thing when we got back to campus).

And they also talk to me more. They wish me a nice evening at the end of lab class. Or a nice weekend on the last class of the week. And it's such a little thing, it seems like - but it's really not. It's just so NICE to have someone say something like that to you, it's like "hey, they recognize I'm a human being too!"

I can't completely explain what it is about it that's so nice, that makes me almost kind of relax a little bit - breathe a grateful sigh - to have students like this. But it is good. I wish the students were like this all the time.