There is an outside and old person who always attends our department's weekly graduate seminar. He appears to be an old professor from other engineering departments. He always asks good questions in the seminars, especially in the areas of my specialties which surprised me to some degree. One time, one of my Ph.D. students wanted to form his dissertation committee. He asked me who he should put on the committee. I said how about the professor who attends out seminar regularly. My student told me that he is only a graduate student in the civil engineering department. His laboratory is right beside mine. He learned a lot from my student.
Today, I saw him talking to our department secretary. After that, I told the secretary that "I thought him to be a professor but he is a student." Apparently, the secretary knows him very well. She said he has been around for a long long time. He just gave the secretary a business card with a title of "professional student".
A professional student! A person who is willing to make low student salary for many many years with the only aim of just learning the knowledge but with no intention of using the learned knowledge in reality. Definitely, such professional students should have a good and peaceful mind for most of us to have so that we will not complain about the injustice and inequality in the society. Having such mind, we can enjoy the life more and may live longer, too. But do you want to be one?
Our department secretary likes to play lottery. Once a while she will come to ask us if we want to play in a group so we can buy a block of tickets. In that way, the chance to win is considerably increased. To make her happy, I always give her $5 or $10. She would say "if I win, I will come to the department the next morning and tell the chair that she quits the job". I would say that I will still come to work but just do what I like. Of cause, we do not hear the end of the story from her and she has been with us many many years. However, we did one more time last year. The next day, I saw a list distributed by her that shows how much each of us will get. Under my name, I got $2.5 million. Hiding my smile, I began to think what I will do with the additional money. When I saw her, I asked "did we really win?". Her answer is "No. I just want to lure your guys to play next time."
one classmate like that when I was in graduate school. well, I do not know what he is doing now, but back then he looked like at my father's age already. :p
There is an outside and old person who always attends our department's weekly graduate seminar. He appears to be an old professor from other engineering departments. He always asks good questions in the seminars, especially in the areas of my specialties which surprised me to some degree. One time, one of my Ph.D. students wanted to form his dissertation committee. He asked me who he should put on the committee. I said how about the professor who attends out seminar regularly. My student told me that he is only a graduate student in the civil engineering department. His laboratory is right beside mine. He learned a lot from my student.
Today, I saw him talking to our department secretary. After that, I told the secretary that "I thought him to be a professor but he is a student." Apparently, the secretary knows him very well. She said he has been around for a long long time. He just gave the secretary a business card with a title of "professional student".
A professional student! A person who is willing to make low student salary for many many years with the only aim of just learning the knowledge but with no intention of using the learned knowledge in reality. Definitely, such professional students should have a good and peaceful mind for most of us to have so that we will not complain about the injustice and inequality in the society. Having such mind, we can enjoy the life more and may live longer, too. But do you want to be one?
先生在大学教书，太太在同一所大学里图书馆工作....
退休的那年，老先生又在自己任教的学校里做了一名学生.....
这么阳光的生活，当时觉得，我是不是也会在几十年后copy一下呢？....
还有，您文中最后一段的point在我写的故事里也没有体现...:))
Our department secretary likes to play lottery. Once a while she will come to ask us if we want to play in a group so we can buy a block of tickets. In that way, the chance to win is considerably increased. To make her happy, I always give her $5 or $10. She would say "if I win, I will come to the department the next morning and tell the chair that she quits the job". I would say that I will still come to work but just do what I like. Of cause, we do not hear the end of the story from her and she has been with us many many years. However, we did one more time last year. The next day, I saw a list distributed by her that shows how much each of us will get. Under my name, I got $2.5 million. Hiding my smile, I began to think what I will do with the additional money. When I saw her, I asked "did we really win?". Her answer is "No. I just want to lure your guys to play next time."
one classmate like that when I was in graduate school. well, I do not know what he is doing now, but back then he looked like at my father's age already. :p