"It's A Long Hard Wait"

So I realized something rather amusing and rather sad this evening.

See, I was on the phone with Dr. Dippel, my old advisor from Ozarks. It was just sort of an update call, keeping him abreast of things going on with grad school applications, job prospects, and life in general. Dr. Dippel sounds like a gruff, grizzled man. He looks like one, too. But he genuinely cares about his students, and not just academically--he takes an interest in them as people. He's definitely my favorite teacher from Ozarks, a school which I felt was populated with excellent educators.

Anyway, it struck me, as I was speaking with him, that he's been more of an advisor to me while I was here at OU than my advisor here, Dr. Hart, was. This isn't to knock Dr. Hart--he's a great guy and an excellent historian. But let's face it--this is one of the key differences between a place like Ozarks, with its 700 students, and a place like OU, with its 25,000 or so. It's just harder to get perosnal attention at a place like OU. It's part of why I eventually want to teach at an institution like Ozarks instead of someplace like OU.

But the conversation with Dippel was good. He wants me to drop by and visit when I come up to Ozarks for Alumni Weekend in a couple of weeks, which I will most definitely do. Until then, I just have to sit back and wait for Adam's mom to email me back (she emails me about once every other week to remind me that I'm welcome to crash at their place whenever I come into town. I'm gonna take her up on the offer, because the alternative is crashing on Clif's couch or getting a hotel room).

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Minus 5, "That's not the way that it's Done"