Ah, how cute

Yesterday I was given the honor of being a University Scholar. At ACU, this is a pretty big deal, so I was excited. There were two students from my department, myself and Erin Holland.

The way these induction ceremonies usually go is something like this: the student name is called based on alphabetical placement of the departments, that student and the professor from their department who they chose stand up together, the professor places an Olympics-type medal around the students neck, and a minute or so long paragraph is read that was written by a member or members of their department's faculty.

These short readings are pretty consistent. They list accomplishments, significant volunteer work, publications, convention presentations, etc. But (big surprise), when the mc got to the art department, consistency was thrown to the road side. Instead of listing the cold hard facts of our accomplishments, they wrote about how Erin has more natural talent than any student they have ever had, and for me, well, let's just say this was the last sentence:

"One of Kalyn's professors said 'If I had a daughter, I would want her to be just like Kalyn.'"

And the audience went:

"Aaaahhhh."

I had to hold in my laughter over the ever-present quirkiness of my department. But I was also kind of proud of them. I don't know if it is the extra-long classes or the nature of our curriculum or just the incredibly good fortune of have exceptionally decent people as professors, but the art professors get to know their students way past the surface level. And yesterday, it showed. Of course, it had to be at the expense of my overall embarrassment of getting the only "ahh" at a fairly formal affair. I guess that when I leave this fine institution, I will always know that although I may not have been the best student ever, I was the one they wanted to adopt.