It's Good to be Back at Montevallo!

As many of you know, I am teaching at the University of Montevallo this year in the Department of Communication.

We've gotten the first two weeks of class under our belt, and it has been awesome! It feels so good to be back in the classroom, especially classrooms as familiar as these.

Returning to UM has been such a great experience for me. Even though it's a bunch of work, it is all totally worth it. I still pinch myself sometimes because it doesn't seem real that I'm teaching in my old department.

I am so incredibly blessed to be working with the original four professors that were there when I was there. Dr. Cofield and Dr. Hoerner have been so helpful, both with getting settled in and up to speed on what's going on. It's been great to be able to joke around with Dr. Scott and Pat again. And I love being able to go sit in Dr. Thompson's office and chat about any and everything (just like old times). They've all been so welcoming and wonderful to me.

(L-R) Dr. Hoerner, me, Dr. Thompson, & Dr. Scott on my graduation day. No one could find Cofield!

Of course, they've told me to call them by their first names now that we're colleagues (and it's still weird to me to think of them as colleagues and not my professors). But changing what you've called someone by for the better part of a decade is no easy task! A lot of times I'll say, "Hey Dr. Cof... Jay."

In addition to teaching Intro to Mass Comm, TV Studio Production, & the Foundations of Oral Communication, I'm also the faculty adviser for Falcon Fever, UM's weekly online sports show. I'm really excited about some changes that we're making, and as soon as we start filming (which is next week!), I'll be posting links to it on all my various social media. So keep your eyes peeled for that! We'd love for you to watch!

While I'm bouncing along the red brick roads as I drive to the coveted white-lined faculty parking spots beside our building, I thank God for blessing me with this opportunity...and for all the other opportunities He is revealing to me. I know I owe this all to Him.

This is going to be one of the most exciting, crazy, hectic, stressful, amazing years of my entire life...and I'm going to love every minute of it!