As an undergraduate, I was the student who sat in the back of the gen ed requirements that didn't interest me (looking at you, Intro to Philosophy). On the course evaluations, I waxed poetic about how unfair it was to force "good" students like me to take pointless easy classes with the unwashed masses, or how I would never use the information I learned ever again in my life. I judged professors who didn't have it all together: those who forgot their test printouts in their office, or spilled coffee on an assignment they were grading, or mixed up the due dates for something. In some gen ed required classes, I even committed the cardinal sin of using my computer for notes and instead browsing Pinterest or working on my novel in class. By my senior year, I grew more appreciative and less condescending, but I still didn't exhibit the kind of compassion I should have for these professors who gave their time and energy to teach me (even if I wasn't always in their class willingly).

Never did I think teaching was as difficult as now that I can see it from the other side. So here are some facts from a student-turned-college-teaching-assistant about things you might not have considered about college professors before:

1. Unless you're a natural public speaker, it is a struggle to stand and talk at the front of a classroom every day.

I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that often intellectuals (and thus those who have resigned themselves to a life of academia) are introverted, if not shy. We prefer our noses to be stuck in books than to be the center of attention day in and day out. Professorship forces you to be more outgoing than ever before if you're an introvert, and more than anything, it drains you. Think about it: if you get your energy from being alone, having 25 faces staring at you while you talk for four hours a week can not be fun.

2. Your students are often like a really bad crowd at a concert.

Imagine you're performing at a concert. You've practiced for it. You've set up all the instruments. You think it's gonna be a great show. Then, when you start playing, you notice that half the audience has blank looks on their faces as if they can't understand anything you're singing, and the other half is looking at their phones. But they still paid to be there, so you have to finish the show anyway, thinking that no one is enjoying it. That's what it's like to be a professor.

3. Lesson planning takes FOREVER.

Lesson planning is so much more complicated than just taking a list of information and deciding what days to explain what concept. You have to plan activities to engage the class. You have to rework the plans when the class doesn't understand a concept as well as they should have. You have to work around due dates. You have to scaffold the concepts (teach them foundational information first, then work up). You have to practice your lectures or be good at estimating how long they will take. And, on top of all that, you have to be flexible. Because you never know when the entire class might be stressed out to the breaking point and need a work day, meaning you have to scrap an entire lesson.

4. Work doesn't stay in the classroom.

I teach 4 hours a week, but my work doesn't end there. Countless hours are spent grading essays and homework, and I can't even estimate how long some lessons and activities have taken to plan. I answer emails from students all the time, and sometimes I schedule outside-of-class meetings with those who are really struggling and can't make it to my office hours. Teaching is not the kind of job you leave at 5 pm to return to the next morning—the stacks upon stacks of worksheets and essays littering my apartment can attest to that.