Friends Through a Common Enemy

Every student who goes to college has to have that one class that is just a waste of time. It's just the way it is. I have such a class and its name is Government 2301. Before I began attending the class, I was hardly interested in politics. When I showed up on Day One, finding not my professor, but a different man sitting at the desk, I had an ominous feeling. As it happened, the new professor (let's just call him Engels*) had to take on our class because the original professor had gotten promoted.

From the very first class we were given the impression that Professor Engels did not want to be there, and soon, it was a feeling we adopted as well. I left every class angry and frustrated, mainly because of how he got easily sidetracked onto racist topics. Recently, I have found a more rewarding way to vent my emotions during class. I sketch now in class. I have tried gleaning the good notes from Professor Engels's lectures, but this leads to me being angry, because I'm actually trying to learn. Here's my most recent sketch:

After a few days, I got to know a few people from that Government class, and we began to meet before every class. We started calling ourselves The Breakfast Club, because of all of our different personalities, and because we all loved the movie. Our meetings were like a cleansing salve over the rest of the day and made it easier to bear Professor Engels's egotistic comments. His tirades did not seem half as offensive when I imagined him as the ticking crocodile from Peter Pan, imagery courtesy of one of my fellow classmates.

Before long, the meetings before class were joined by meetings after class. My classmates and I ate comfort burritos after a difficult test or an especially trying day. We made jokes about the professor and conspired about grading him lowly on www.ratemyprofessors.com. I wonder how many of his classmates actually take him for a second semester. Even though I won't be taking the honorable Professor Engels next semester, I might have him to thank for the close friends I now have from that class. As I learned from the John Adams miniseries, "Nothing makes greater friends than a common enemy."


*Name has been changed to protect the guilty and innocent alike.