The start of the semester

*This post is in response, at least in part, to some of the things my friend Anastasia has been blogging about.

Classes start next week.  I'm feeling the typical mixture of dread and excitement that I feel at the start of every new academic year.  I'm dreading the start of the term because, yes, it does mean the return of the students.  This means a lot more traffic around CU Land, which inevitably means that, daily, I will narrowly avoid running over one student who can't be bothered to look both ways before crossing the street or to obey the cross walk signals.  I'm also dreading it because it means the end of the uninterrupted writing time I've enjoyed for at least 2 hours every day. 

I am excited about teaching though because, not unlike Anastasia, I actually like my students.  Yes, they annoy me, and I complain about them.  But I really enjoy teaching.  I do what I do because of the teaching, not because of the research (I do enjoy the research, don't get me wrong, but teaching energizes me in a way research doesn't).  So while I will complain quite loudly about how the return of students affects almost every aspect of life in CU Land, I am quite happy to have them returning to my classroom.