Full Circle
Last week I finished what is hopefully my last long semester at UT as a PhD student. In addition, it marked the end of the “Advertising on the Internet” course I have been teaching all semester to around 150 undergraduate students. As I presume most people do, when things end, I tend to think about how they begun and what has changed, good or bad, since that time. As such, many memories have come to mind over the last week …
In the Fall of 1995, I came to Austin to pursue an undergraduate degree in Communications from UT. I was required to take a course from each department and elected to begin with a radio, television and film (RTF) class on digital media. The course was taught by a woman named Aviva who was a PhD student in the RTF department. She seemed to have equal parts of smarts and sass and thus I was naturally intrigued. I ended up working on a special project for her class with several other students and we met at the ACT Lab in the Communications building on campus. The ACT lab was a small room with about 6 desktop computers, black walls, no windows, and two bare light bulbs that hung down from the ceiling on coiled wires. We had our meetings there to discuss computer security and crimes, web design, networking, etc. … and thus, my fascination with academic research was hatched.
After that first Fall semester of college, I went on to finish my degree while starting a business with my brother, Ben. Then, after graduation, I happened into a job at a start-up in town and figured I would give that a shot. After becoming a “dot com millionaire” did not come through and the business tanked, I decided to go back to graduate school, liked it and decided to get my PhD.
By the time I made it through my coursework as a PhD student and was assigned to teach a course, I had not thought about Aviva in years. Then, on the first day of class this semester, I walked into the same class room that she taught my class in thirteen years ago and realized that I was now the crazy, exhausted PhD teacher lady. Walking into that auditorium to teach all semester put a smile on my face because I was constantly reminded of how far I have come and the things I have accomplished in the last decade.
I contemplated telling my students about my full circle moment on the first day of class but resisted. On the last day of class, I told them my little story and got a few laughs and claps … they seemed to enjoy knowing that I was in their shoes at some point ;). So, Aviva … if you are out there, thanks for inspiring me to teach, do research and be a crazy PhD lady.