What should I know about MTC before I arrive in June?

What should I know about MTC before I arrive in June?

That's a good question for the future first-years who read this thing.

Mississippi is a pretty interesting place.

I have to start off with the food. It is pretty amazing, especially for people like me who tend to ignore nutrition. You can have all the fried foods you want. Macaroni & cheese is a vegatable here. There is also the terribly disgusting foods. For some reason Kool-Aid pickles are prominent in my head. You will also have to get used to the presence of perhaps the most disgusting food in the world, "Flamin' Hot Cheetos". I swear that my students are in love with them despite my lectures and obvious dismay.

Mississippi is actually quite a beautiful place. There is a strange charm to the Delta that makes you want to stay for a while (since I don't live there). I have found that Jackson is surprisingly cosmopolitan if you look in the right corners. It's not quite New York (or even a New Orleans) but it is something.

There are going to be a lot of annoying people here. Ole Miss has a lot of those people. The kind of girls that put makeup on to go jogging and guys in polo shirts with awful hair. If I see one more "Southern Boy" haircut I am going to grab some scissors and cut off those bangs. Grown men should not have bangs.

More seriously, you can't talk about Mississippi without talking about race and by direct extension, poverty. It is surreal to what level race is the unspoken backdrop to conversations here. You will be working in some of the most segregated areas of the state. You will find that Jackson is surprisingly segregated. You will find that the Delta is more often than not, disgustingly segregated. The school districts become showcases for what happens when half of the community (the white half) doesn't support the schools and the other half (the black half) doesn't seem to know what to do.

On a more practical level here is some advice.

Enjoy your senior year of college (or whatever you are doing right now). It's fun on its own and you need to get rested up for the year. There is a good chance that once you step foot in Mississippi that you are not getting any significant amount of time off. Sorry. I graduated from college on Sunday afternoon and ended up in Oxford on Tuesday morning. After June and summer school came July and TEAM. After that last week, I had a week of district induction. Then school begins. Then somehow your body makes it to Thanksgiving Break. It is painful but that is life.

Don't stress out.

Repeat.

Don't stress out.

We (the future second-years and the MTC staff) will take care of you. We are going through the experience right now. We will give you any wisdom you need that happens to fall our way. We will give you any hugs and support you need. Things will be OK. Trust me. Now take your PRAXIS II and get away from the computer.