-: You know, I quit for awhile.
I got tired of some of the,
the day to day grind at Virginia Tech,
and I got away, and I went into,
I became a financial planner for about five years or so.
But after about a semester away,
the dairy science department asked me,
hey, can I come in and teach a class
for a recently retired professor,
I said well, sure, I'll give it a shot,
and I came back and absolutely loved it.
I loved being back with the students,
I loved the energy and the motivation that they had.
One of the most gratifying parts of coming back,
or of teaching in general,
is, I call it seeing the light come on.
A lot of students, they struggle with a particular concept,
or a particular subject, and when they finally get it,
when that a-ha moment shows up,
that's just, that's the most rewarding thing to me,
is seeing them get the confidence to grow,
to learn the materials,
and really just, just,
they start to blossom at that point.
So, to me, that's the crowning achievement.
Oh, the difficult aspects of teaching on campus,
number one, my biggest gripe would be
working with unmotivated or lazy students,
students that are just here to get points
and get a degree without really learning anything.
That sucks the emotions right out of me pretty quickly.
That's why I like working with the motivated students,
they fire me back up really quick.
So, working with students that are
here for the wrong reasons,
and I'd say they're here because
they want a diploma rather than an education.