Dr. Fullmerston nodded at me as I came in quietly during another student’s presentation.  This person finished up in the next couple minutes and took questions from the class and Dr. F, and then took a seat.  Dr. F. smiled in a way that was hard for me to distinguish between frustration or anger. 

            “Well, I’m glad to see you could make it, Mr. Johnson.   I believe you’re next.  Were you checking over some of your material at the last minute?” he asked.  I had been thinking over a lot of possible explanations for my tardiness all the way to class, and I had already considered and discarded his suggestion before I left my uncle’s house. 

            “No, nothing like that,” I said, chuckling as I walked toward the front of the room.  “I’m sorry for any inconvenience I caused anyone.”  I said, looking at the young woman who had to do her presentation early because of me.  I launched into my work, writing chemical names and drawing structures on the blackboard as I spoke.  Somewhere along the way my embarrassment at being late got tangled up with the self directed anger and doubt I felt about oversleeping, and along with a general state of grogginess combined to produce some mistakes in what I wrote on the board.  I didn’t notice them, but most of my classmates did after I opened things up for questions.   Whereas the previous presentation’s question session lasted about 3 minutes, mine went over 10, and before it was over I saw students with their books put away and backpacks ready, eager to be dismissed for the next class.

            “Well, you handled that pretty well, Jarod,”  Dr. Fullmerston said.  “I saw the confusion starting on faces about 5 minutes into your writing and wondered if anyone would say anything then.  You’re good under pressure.”

            “I shouldn’t have put myself in that kind of pressure, though.  I’m not going to b.s you, I overslept this morning.  Not because I was so tired, but because I hit snooze a couple times and then my clock stopped going off.  I’m really sorry I’m late and I’m going to do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

            Dr. Fullmerston just smiled at me.  “Sounds like you need to be going to bed earlier.”

            “I’m usually fine on 6 hours sleep, especially when I’ve got something big to do…”

            Dr. Fullmerston just shook his head, but kept smiling as if to tell me not to be too hard on myself.  “I’m going to have to take some points off because you’re late, but you’re work as a whole is very good and more developed and original than a lot of others, so you’ll be okay.”

            “Thank you,” I said, as I stuffed my papers in my book bag.  I felt an enormous sense of gratitude well up in me toward his favorable, and kind, response.  We walked out of the room together, discussing a question I had about certain element’s unusual reaction to extreme temperatures.  I wanted to keep chatting with him, but also felt like I might be coming off a bit like an ass kisser since his grade held a fair amount of sway over my future.  He didn’t know that I needed him for a recommendation yet, but would find out soon.  I thanked him again, and made my way to the student union for lunch.

            Fall was running behind on campus.  Despite being mid October I was in a tee shirt and shorts.   Green leaves still clung to most of the trees, except in a few places where they had gone straight to brown without the usual splash of red or orange.  The science and technology oriented campus with approximately 7000 students was situated along the northern edge of a small town of about 14000 and gave what would have been a rather sleepy rural community of middle class white people a lively dash of ideas and diversity.  The warmer than usual weather sparked above average chatter about global warming.  Between discussing the government’s inaction, possible conspiracies of the oil companies, and all the possible ways to reduce emissions and remove CO2 from the atmosphere, it seemed like everyone wanted to work on whatever the solution was – either alternative energy sources or carbon filters.  I want to do work in this field too, but much more than that.  My plan involves two routes – making a fortune, or at least a steady stream of strong income, from the development of inexpensive but highly desirable consumer items, and understanding how patterns of behavior develop in people, and informing the public of them in such a way that they can seize opportunities collectively at their own behest, not as mass agents of the government or corporate propaganda wing.  I’m only a little way into both plans.