This year I’ve been a course convener for the first time and been a lecturer on another course, with a combined 600 students between them. It has been extremely difficult at times. I’ve handled over 1400 query emails, lectured 20+ times and had over a hundred hours of consultation time with students.

Furthermore, there were protests towards the end of the year and we had to make decisions under conditions of extreme uncertainty. At the same time, the protests triggered my anxiety, which I had to try as best I could to work through.

To top it all off, some students are unbelievably difficult regardless of how hard you try.

At one point I decided I didn’t want to come back.

I had had enough.

However, I changed my mind. And today I was reminded of the two words that did:

Thank you

Two students sent me heartfelt emails saying thank you for the courses, and all the work I’d done. The simple gesture of saying thank you made me feel like I had achieve my objective, that I had done well.

And suddenly, those two words made it all worth it.

Image is from the exam tents on campus. It was incredibly hot and noisy. We had to write in these tents because it was the only way the university could fortify against protestors. There are 50+ police in riot gear that surround the venue as well as fences, barbed wire and a bunch of emergency services. Really not the best conditions to write an exam under. But the students made it through, and that’s all that matters