I found out that my favorite professor (aka Dr. Satan for those who know/care) at Wartburg is leaving after this year. I couldn't believe it. Dr. Satan was my advisor until he convinced me that I would be a better Writing major than an English major, and I reluctantly switched majors and consequently advisors. His courses were the type that absolutely killed you, but came out better for it in the end. I took as many courses from him as I possibly could fit into my schedule. I took his ever-feared Grammars course as an elective senior year, and was kicking myself for it at midterm when I had a D in it. I toyed with switching to pass/fail on the course, or even withdrawing, but he convinced me to stick it out. I ended up with an A-, which is the grade I'm most proud of from college.

I emailed him tonight, still not willing to accept that he was really leaving, and he responded to nearly all of my questions. I would love to post his reply on here (many parts of which made me laugh out loud) but he asked me not to forward the email to anybody and I think that includes posting it on the internet.

I guess I just always expected that he would still be there for my 10 year renunion to reminisce on days past. He's my parents' age, so he definitely has years left to teach. Man...I'm just blown away, in case you haven't noticed. His lit classes were so great...jeez, so many memories. They were the exact reason why I went to a small school. All of you who attended a large Universtity just have no clue. I'd say a good portion of the students at Wartburg had a frank and close relationship with their favorite professors.

Picture a young C. Maurice sitting in a moderatly small classroom with 15 other students, listening to Dr. Satan read Samual Johnson from our Nortan Anthology of English Literature. I am, in my typical fashion, paying attention enough to make notes in the passages that I thought would probably show up on a test, but not nearly as much as everyone else. No, I am engrossed in my latest doodle project in my notebook. Meanwhile, Dr. Satan has decided that he can't ignore my elborate doodle, stops mid-sentence, and asked me just what the hell am I doing. I looked at him, thought about it for a second, and replied "[Dr. Satan] I find that if I don't doodle like I am now, I fall asleep in your lectures." He looked at me for a second, chuckled, and kept on reading. It was great.

......

While I was on campus this past weekend, I had the chance to talk to Dr. Satan at an event he was attending. Partly because I only knew the student that was holding it, and partly because I was at the time thinking primarily with the brain in my pants, I ended up skipping that particular event. And now I wish I had gone.

The rest of the weekend was pretty blah. Maybe I should've gone by myself. Maybe I should've just showed up for Saturday night's event. Maybe I should've showed up with my drinking shoes on. I'm not sure. It had a few good bonding moments with people I haven't seen for a long time, and I was glad I got to see those people and talk with them. But it just wasn't what I was looking for this weekend. For some reason I feel like I could've done something different and it would've been more fun. I'm not sure.