Student. Adult. Whatever.

So here's an interesting thing about my college experience.  I met most of my philosophy professors before I was a college student.  My boyfriend was already in the grad program finishing his masters before heading on to the Ph.D., so I attended the social functions.  I hung out in the department lounge (quite the hopping joint during the semester) when I didn't have anywhere else to be.  And I didn't meet them from the perspective of a student.  I met them from the perspective of an adult.  Which means I was introduced to them by first name on a more or less even footing.  I wasn't even planning on a philosophy major at the time, so it didn't seem like much of an issue.

Now that I am an enrolled major, though, things have gotten a bit odd.  I still call them by first name when I'm hanging out in the lounge.  I'm an adult, after all, the same as them, and it just seems odd to call them by their last names.  Hell, it took me most of my freshman year to learn their last names, since the grad students I hang out with almost exclusively use first names for the professors (and because I'm not very good at remembering names in general).  And in a graduate class it's okay to refer to the professors by first name.  Grad students are treated something like junior colleagues, so they have that level of familiarity.

What gets weird is when I'm in a class with these folks.  'Cause, see, I'm an undergraduate.  Undergrads generally don't use that level of familiarity with professors unless specifically granted the privilege.  For example, several of the grad student teachers allow their classes to use their first names.  For the professors, though, that's far less common.  So I'm in a situation where my first impulse is to unthinkingly call my teachers by their first names when everyone else around me is using "Dr. _________" to talk to them.  I have to consciously tell myself what to call them.

My solution?  I tend not to use names at all in class.  I just wait until things are quiet before talking so I don't have to specifically attract attention.  Is it the coward's way out?  Most likely.  But it prevents embarrassing mistakes, and that's really all I ask for.