D-Day tomorrow - Fall semester begins

During the summer our campus rests in repose, a slumbering giant, although some of us are quite active year around, our presence is nothing in comparison to the thousands of students that swell the population (and coffers) of our small city. The arrival of students for the fall semester is always met with a mixture of anticipation, relief, and dread, depending upon your perspective. Personally it's fun time, and while not eager necessarily, the arrival of the fall semester always engenders a certain energy and high hopes. It also brings the recognition of the failure to have accomplished all of my summer's goals, and how long it will take me to finish my book weighs heavily upon me, and even good friends, and family, are beginning to wonder if it will ever be done. So tomorrow it begins, and my particular task is not guiding freshmen, although that was my main job for many years, but to motive and challenge jaded seniors who either think they have it all figured out, or who just want to be done. And who stands in their way but the Phytophactor demanding their intellectual and energetic best. Those students who meet your challenges are always a joy, and those who do not try are more to be pitied because life will be tough for them. And so it begins. Now to pick out my best Hawaiian shirt because your first impression is important, and the occasion calls for a bit of academic formality.