Professor Octopussy in The Stuff That's Not Interesting But Is The Most Interesting Stuff I'll Write

I’m not sure I can quite properly convey how absolutely mind-boggling my new teaching situation has been. From day one, it was a definite mindfuck. Even though the first day consisted mostly of going over the syllabus with my co-teacher in the classes, there was that moment where the lead professor wrote my name on the board.

I have spent nearly all of my adult life running away from my name. I created my little online person in 1999 using the name that I still use in writing this blog to this day. Although the name was giving to me by my beloved, it was a name that let me escape the ties that held me to my family. In fact, there are still casual acquaintances from my early-20s who don’t know my real name and will call out “Octopussy!” when they see me at bars or whatever even though we are all in our mid- to late-30s.

Then when I pursued stand-up, I got to create another new name for myself. This was a professional name that I used in my writings and performances for nearly 15 years. It was a name that I spent a significant amount of time trying to come up with.... then seeing my real written on the board and having the other professor give me a title above my name was.... unsettling.

That was just day one.

I just finished day two, in which I actually had to do something, and let me tell you, it was just as disconcerting. I have spent a significant portion of the last decade as a student in higher education, suddenly finding myself on the flip side of that equation is a trip.

Little things that I take for granted are suddenly extremely large hurdles for students. I had not realized that I would have to explain to my students how to use a dictionary. Like the physical book. They had never really seen anything like that and they all just want to use their phones for information, which I don’t really have a problem with, but a physical dictionary actually has a more exhaustive list of information.

So a large portion of my day was spent orienting students to the dictionary.

But this is what I signed up to do, and I knew it would be a challenge, but I wasn’t really prepared for the mental stress on myself that the situation itself would bring up. Sooooo lesson learned, I guess.

Here’s hoping I get a better grip on it.