{"id":12353,"date":"2012-07-12T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=12353"},"modified":"2014-09-09T10:09:38","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T14:09:38","slug":"one-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2012\/07\/12\/one-step\/","title":{"rendered":"One Step"},"content":{"rendered":"Two days ago, I found myself hiding in a washroom on campus, nervous and shaky. I reviewed my notes on my tablet, mouthing what I was going to say wordlessly, frantically. I was counting down time.\r\n\r\n8 minutes.\r\n\r\nOh look! A notification from Draw Something. Okay, quickly. Let's guess -- What is that?! Is that a tree or a hill? A hill? SCORE.\r\n\r\n3 minutes.\r\n\r\nIs he there yet? Why did I even tell him I was going to visit him after class? Why, self, why? Oh a tweet~\r\n\r\n0 minutes.\r\n\r\nAnd I step out. The hallway outside was partially lit. It made the grey linoleum strip impossible long. \u00a0The sound of my sandals clicking with every step unnerved me so I quickly made my way to my destination. I turned the corner, neck straining so I can see where I needed to go.\r\n\r\nAnd then there was light. \"Hi Professor,\" I squeaked. He turned around, got out of his chair and welcomed me into his sunlit office.\r\n\r\n\"Hello! Good to see you. Come, sit down,\" he replied. Breathless, I stuttered through my reason for the visit, and stumbled some more over the thoughts and notes I had prepared before hand. I'm not quite sure I remember\u00a0what we actually talked about for the next 20 minutes, really, but I walked out of there feeling much better.\r\n\r\nI'm coming clean here - I'm going into my fourth year (eek!), and I can count on my one hand the number of times I've visited my professors' office hours. It's scary! If there's anything I want to avoid, it's looking dumb. This is despite (or in spite of) what professors say about no question ever being a dumb question. Look, if you can find someone who's completely comfortable visiting a prof's office hours, even for the first time, then the sky is most definitely not blue.\r\n\r\nUniversity is about stepping outside your comfort zone. \u00a0Of course, one of the biggest steps us students have to take is the step towards our professor's office hours. It took me a less than satisfying tutorial and about 4 days of venting to my family and friends (and my boss, for that matter) about it for me to get the guts to visit my professor during his office hours. For me, the reason I spent so long stewing over it was because the course I am taking is beyond what I know. I'm not in that program, so I really don't know what I'm talking about.\r\n\r\nIn hindsight, that's a pretty stupid reason to not<\/em>\u00a0go to office hours. If anything it's all the more<\/em>\u00a0reason to say hi to professor and talk about what you don't know, even if it's a distribution - wait, you guys call it breadth now, right?- course in a program you're not actually in. For one thing, it's not worth jeopardizing your marks. For another, professors want you to visit. They need you. Have you seen this PSA? Those poor professors.\r\n\r\n