Under Advisement…

advisor:  n. one who gives advice;  a teacher responsible for advising students on academic matters;  a fortuneteller.

Another desired role has come my way today:  I have been chosen to be an advisor to new IDP students entering Trinity in the fall.  It wasn’t very long ago that I was in dire need of the same thing.  Now I get to reach out to a new group of men and women following a similar path.  Until I was asked it seemed like a fun thing to do.  With this honor, though, I have to question a few things:

1–Do I know what I’m doing at Trinity?  I still haven’t been inside the big cafeteria.  The sights, smells, and sounds are just too big for me.  Not to mention the political geography throws me right back to high school.  The football table, the clique table, the foreign language tables–that’s a hoot, you can eat lunch and practice your Mandarin at the same time–are incompatible with my solitariness.  I eat in an empty classroom in the English house.  On the bright side, however, is the fact that I DO know where all the food and drinks to be had are located!  The good coffee is in the library, Chai tea is in the grill downstairs in Mather, and the Bistro has tilapia and ribeye for $12 on Wednesdays (dinner only).  So my advisees will not starve or die of thirst.

2–Am I qualified to advise?  I’m loud, opinionated, disrespectful, nosy, bossy, and am the mother of two teenagers (God help me, my daughter turns 13 in two weeks).  I’d say that’s a big fat check.  Plus, I know how to get parking permits without having to pay for them.  Two checks.

3–Academically, am I a good example?  There will always be students smarter, younger, prettier, and faster than me.  But I can run rings around them all in a poetry discussion, short story debate, or literature analysis.  Nyah.  And if my advisee is a Chem or higher math major?  I’m in good with the director of the Math Tutoring Center, having brought her gallons of coffee in the past year out of gratitude for passing me through the placement test.  (She continues to insist I passed the test, she only corrected it, but I’m hedging my bets.)

4–Can I give good advice?  Well, I haven’t told anyone to jump off a bridge lately

It still seems sometimes like the Adult Police are going to show up at the door and arrest me for fraud.  I used to think this was a phase, but my mom recently told me she catches a look at herself in the mirror and thinks, “Who is that gray-haired old lady?”  So I might be doomed to a life of self-delusion.  Better to think I’m a child imitating the grown-ups than the other way around, I think.

I hope I’m helpful.  I hope I’m advice-full.  I hope they like me.  To steal from James, I’ll try to not suck.