Originally Posted:
Friday, June 20, 2008
1:37:00 PM CDT
On the first day of Fall 2007 classes I knew this would be my last year for teaching at WKU. It was just a feeling I had when I walked into the classroom and low and behold, nine months later I put in my resignation. I've always said that I will only do something for as long as I enjoy it because life is too short to be miserable. Also, teaching is one of those careers where energy is a give and take. If the students are not willing to be motivated, then it sucks the life out of me. Talking to a brick wall gets more results. And, if I'm not motivated, the students sense it and lose their muster too. I also knew going into teaching that it would not be a permanent thing for me for a couple of reasons. First, I think that as instructors we owe it to our students to be as sharp and knowledgeable on the industry as those practicing in the field which can only happen if the instructor is practicing or has recently practiced in the field. And second, I knew I could only stay out of being in the field for a short time before I got antsy to get back in.
For those of you not in the interior design industry, it is demanding, frustrating and it’s easy to burn yourself out if you put so much of yourself into the job. However, on the flip side, it can be rewarding and offer a lot of personal satisfaction. I started teaching part-time and found that being around eager, fresh minds renewed my sense of excitement for the profession when I started to get burned out. Then, as opportunity would have it, I got the chance to teach full time at WKU. When I started the program was, to put it mildly, one flush away from being sucked down the toilet. However, what I found on the first day of classes in the fall of 2002 was a group of students who were so determined to not let their education be a waste that they were willing to do anything to make up for what they had not learned over the course of their three-four years there and they did not let me down. On the contrary, they took everything I threw at them and ran with it. We spent many late nights and weekends in the architecture student's computer labs (because we didn't have any computers for ourselves back then...imagine!!!), they often scheduled meeting times for themselves taking entire lab room to work on projects outside of class time with me there offering assistance, and I took a LOT of late night phone calls asking for project help. What a group! By the end of that year, the senior class was churning out projects that could compete in the market and they could feel good about themselves. WKU's motto is, "The Spirit Makes the Master" and I can honestly say that the senior class of 2003 should win the Henry Hardin Cherry Award for Stick-To-It-Ness if there was such a thing. The Class of 2003 will always be my favorite graduating class not because they were my first group of students, but because they were so full of life, determination and humor.
The following years at WKU were very topsy-turvy- my second year there I was the only full-time ID faculty and had to teach two and three classes at the same time because the other instructor quit the day before classes started. One semester I found myself running in circles (literally!) as I would get one class started, run next door to get the other class started, then an hour later run across the hall to get the next class started. I would spend half a day running a loop from one room to the next answering questions and keeping the classes going. Once again, I have the students to thank for pulling through. They could have walked out or given up when I wasn't there. I guess they saw how much I was doing while running in circles to keep them afloat that they stuck with it and kept me going too. In addition to the in-house craziness, I had to add my own folk studies graduate classes to the mix so I could earn an MA in Folk Studies/Historic Preservation to keep teaching. While all this was going on, I was trying to rebuild the interior design program into something viable and a contender with the other programs which was working because we went from having no computers, to me building an entire computer classroom out of scavenged computers, to finally having a "real" dedicated CAD classroom by the time I left. Computers are not the sign of a good program, just a tool for students to work with. It's the level of work that changed and the great pieces that are now being produced that have turned the program around. No one is irreplaceable, I am fully aware of that and I know someone else will take my place. However, it's the person behind the position that makes or breaks a role. I'd like to think that there won't be another person like me to take my place, but either which way, it was time for me to go. Many students sent VERY heartfelt emails to me when they heard I was leaving. They thanked me for pushing them and being so hard on them and making them believe in themselves. I was very touched with their kind words and know that all the decisions I made along the way were worth it. Even if people didn't know what I was doing or didn't get it, I always acted on the students' behalf and tried to pave the way for a better interior design program.
I'm leaving WKU on a leap of faith that bigger and better things are to come. I'll be spending my summer in Seattle then returning to Savannah to finish up my own MFA degree then...who knows!!!?!?
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