First Day

My brother told me Tiger Woods once said something like,”The day I don’t feel nervous before a tournament is the day I quit professional golf.” He said that being nervous was a sign that you care about something. The quote sounds so basic and simple which is why I love it. Today is the first day of spring classes at ASU, and I was really nervous. My first class was a CSE class which I knew was going to be easy, but my second class was a philosophy class called Existentialism. I only took the class because it fulfilled a upper division social science requirement. Almost as soon as the teacher started to talk, I knew the class was going to be fun. The teacher is the determining factor in having any fun course, and I have a feeling that  Thad Botham is going to make Existentialism fun.

Thad starts off the class by asking how the introduction was for Solomon’s book Existentialism. I was in the group that answered they had no idea what he was talking about. I kind of understood, but not enough to say that I got it. Somebody asked why did the book switch back and forth between his and her when using an ambiguous person; isn’t his usually the correct form? Thad gave a long answer that the author was trying to be more gender neutral, and then made a joke about it saying it’s the least we can do for women. I asked Thad if he wanted us to call him doctor. His response was a really long one that started off with don’t call me doctor, but I don’t think he ever answered my question. This is the second time that I have said he gave really long answers, but it’s because he isn’t like most teachers I have had before. Instead of just saying the answer he goes on to explain the reasoning and also making a joke about it.

This was also the first time that a teacher swore in the classroom saying fuck multiple times. Every time he swore it was because he was imitating what a student might be saying. For instance, after Thad said that for the majority it would be the students teaching the rest of the students; He said, “Some of you must be thinking, Fuck, I didn’t sign up to teach.” It was funny because I definitely could imagine somebody saying that exact line in their head. Thad ended the class with showing off his definition of Existentialism which was like a paragraph long that looked pretty good according to what I read. But just like the book, Thad didn’t really want to limit Existentialism with a definition, but wanted us to discover it for ourselves. 

This class feels like it is going to take a lot of work with the reading to get that good grade, but I feel like it will be worth it. Because if I can keep up with the material, the class should be really fun. We get assigned to groups on Wednesday, and again I’m nervous, but that just means I care. I hope the people in the group are fun.