How to be Friends with Your Professor

            Remember back in elementary and middle school when our teachers were these beings beyond our comprehension, who had never been young and whose first name was Mr. or Mrs.? And then remember in high school when one of the most awkward moments from those four years combined was seeing your English or P.E. teacher down one of the aisles at Kroger (then they recognized you, and all you wanted to do was curl up in a ball and never go outside again)?
            Well, those days are long gone. Your professors are real, living, breathing humans! No need to feel awkward seeing them outside the classroom! And honestly, with Mercer being such a small campus, the likelihood of seeing them walking to their office hours or grabbing a coffee at Jit Joes is extremely high.
            And let’s be real, our professors are really cool. They have years and years worth of crazy stories and sage advice stored up in their minds. Some of them have even gone through four years of undergrad or three years of graduate at Mercer. Who doesn’t love to hear some tales about good old MU?
            But the real question is, how do you get to a point where you and your professor can sit down together and talk about subjects other than the modern relevance of Shakespeare’s work, or last weeks’s physics lab?
           I’m here to offer some advice.
            One: Visit your professors from last semester. Seriously. Go talk to them. Ask how their classes have been going and how they’ve been enjoying the semester. It’s okay if it’s not a two-hour long conversation – the fact that you’ve already reached out and talked to them is enough.
            Two: If you do see your professor in public, don’t shy away. We all know the tactic – someone “just texted” you and you need to respond to it right now because it’s important and pressing. Or that passage in your book is so fascinating that you have to stare at it for a good minute or two just to grasp the full complexity of that one sentence. Come on guys. If you see your professor, go talk to them. Go say hi. Seriously.
            Three: Facebook. If your professor is on Facebook, send them a friend request. It’s a great way to stay in touch, especially because emails feel extremely formal. And professors usually post interesting articles and photos, so you can always start up another conversation about that.
            I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, and I’m definitely not saying it’s going to be completely free of awkward moments. Just like getting to know one of your classmates, it’s going to take some time and effort to be friends with your professors.