Saturday, August 04, 2007

Revisiting the Valpo post

So here's the thing. Going to college where both of your parents work and most of the parents of your best friends work can be awkward at best. If I say I smirked when asked if I knew who a certain professor was, it was said all in good fun and not as an insult. In those days I wanted to live a secret life as I wanted my own identity and not be known as a professor's brat. These situations came up by chance and frankly if someone did say anything that should not have been said to me, I did try to stop them. Remember all you shocked readers, the prospective students of said professor were asking if I knew him. I simply stated I did. (It is REALLY hard not to smirk when maintaining a secret life) Also remember that I stated that I DID try to stop the poor girl from prattling on. For those of you who took it all in fun and awkwardness, thanks. I am a raving paranoid middle aged woman so I have to state this all here on my blog. No need to comment but do know it isn't my style to cut down my parents especially in PUBLIC.

I will add one other cute story related to said professor that I thought was FUNNY. I took a course by another professor in the subject area of said professor. They were colleagues and I often times babysat this professor's kids. So here I am trying to live my secret , don't know anybody at this University life, and the colleague decided to ask me to give the definition of Sociology on the first day of class(this is the subject matter they taught) and I was suddenly sweating. Here the dad was the head of the department and his daughter was put on the spot in class. Phew......I remembered the answer! I think that was one of my most relieved, saved from embarressment moments. See dad, I was paying attention to your life! I did well in the class and can't help bringing up Sociology type observations when people make ignorant, culturely related comments.

Oh......one more thing......one of my favourite memories at Dear Old Valpo was graduation day when I let my secret identity out of the bag. Valpo has the tradition that if a professors kid was graduating that they got to go up on the podium and give each other a hug after receiving their diploma. We got a great picture of this and yes, it is a great memory.

I think I need an 'Ode to Dad' post now. THis is just a start. If I have offended anyone, I am truly sorry and that was not and never is my intent on the good old blog.

Sincerely

The middle aged paranoid woman

2 comments:

Nat said...

It's impressive that you were able to keep it a secret for that long. I remember Naomi telling me that she kept running into people at Bethel who knew who she was but whom she had never met. For my own part I have actually overheard students talking about my dad when they didn't know who I was, but both times they were just talking about the fact that he has a lot of snacks in his office.

Karin said...

Boy, you're fast! There were people who knew of course but it became more a moment of pride than a the times when I wanted to be known as an individual and not as that Professor's kid or the daughter of the Assistant Manager of the Bookstore........things change when you are done trying to be your own person.