You know what I wish more people knew?
That higher education professionals (those of us who work in colleges and universities) love our students.
That we don’t just sit around in ivory towers isolating ourselves.
That we pour out ourselves for our students. We stay late to help students. We lose sleep over best ways to help students. We go broke buying snacks, groceries, and hygiene products for our students who don’t have income. We research shelters for our students who don’t have homes and make sure they receive the support they need.
That we become college moms and dads for students away from home. We keep tissues and granola bars in our offices for when students need to cry and have hunger pangs when they have worn themselves out with their tears. And we get real with them when they need it, too. We are often playful, but we do not play
That we exercise presence with students during crises. We comfort students having anxiety attacks and help them breathe. We ride in ambulances with students who have overdosed. We hold hands with students giving police reports telling how they went drinking with people they thought were their friends and woke up having been raped. We do this all while protecting student privacy and confidentiality.
That we do what we do because we love our students. Because it’s not the pay. We often make less than our K12 colleagues.
I also wish people knew how much we love our colleagues. That there’s nothing like the friendship and support that grows in an institution of higher education.
Just doing some wishful thinking.