After a lifetime of being ordered around by teachers in in loco parentis roles, visiting a professor during office hours is way more terrifying than it should be.
Sure, the professor determines my grade in the class, and, sure, he's much, much smarter than I currently am or can ever hope to be. But I shouldn't have to leave abruptly after five minutes, insisting I have somewhere to be, carefully avoiding the professor's eyes. I shouldn't have to feel uncomfortable when tells me to sit down across from him at an empty table which seems to have been reserved solely for this purpose.
Not that it's anyone's fault, really. If anything, it's my own. I'm a nervous person. Furthermore, it seems important that one should respect one's professors, since they are invariably way way smarter than their students. And they have all the power. Yet I think there's a difference between respect and fear. Perhaps it's a difference I need to learn.
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