Diving Into The Wreck

My Name Is Jonas

In the Rhodes Science Center at Egmont College, there's a huge mosaic of our school mascot, the Egmont Panther, faithfully created in colored tiles on the floor. It's bad luck to step on the panther, so on my way to class on the first day of my junior year of college, I carefully stepped around it, just like everyone else. A few clueless freshmen walked across the mosaic, and the rest of us chuckled to ourselves, knowing that they now had bad luck for the entire year.

It's funny how quickly traditions like that can start. The Rhodes Center, with its huge windows and state of the art science equipment, was brand new during my freshman year, and already, everyone knew not to step on the Egmont Panther.

I headed upstairs until I found room 231. The desks were arranged in neat rows, and there was a large whiteboard at the front. Most of the other students in the class were already there, even though class wasn't supposed to start for another five minutes. Not even the professor was there yet, although I had taken Introduction to Biology and Ecology/Evolutionary Biology with Jonas, and he was notorious for showing up just as class was about to start.

I quickly looked around at my fellow students. I recognized most of them from previous science classes, but there were a handful of new faces. I couldn't stop stealing glances at the girl in the back, with her smooth, light brown skin, shoulder-length wavy brown hair, round glasses, and slight smile. She was wearing a T-shirt that read "Women need more sleep than men because fighting the patriarchy is exhausting," and there was a book in her hands. I wanted to sit next to her and ask what she was reading, but I didn't have the nerve. Instead, I found a seat next to the whiteboard and stared at the wall until Jonas showed up.

Jonas was a tall, dark-skinned man with square glasses perched on his nose. His tight curly hair was flying in all directions, making him look like he might have used a Tesla coil to style his hair instead of a comb, which frankly seemed like something Jonas might have actually done. He glanced around the classroom and mumbled to himself, "This classroom looks so dull right now. How can anyone learn in here?" He ran out of the classroom, came back with a bulletin board covered with photos that he had taken with his students, and hung the bulletin board up on the wall. "That's better," he said, louder this time. "Can we please move the desks as well? I'd like them in a horseshoe shape if possible."

All of us moved the desks around, and once Jonas was satisfied with our handiwork, he introduced himself. "Hello everyone," Jonas said with a wide, genuine smile. "My name is Professor Igbinedion, but please call me Jonas. I will be your instructor for Florida Everglades: Ecology and Conservation, and I look forward to teaching all of you about our local ecosystems this semester."

He picked up a stack of paper, and we passed the syllabi around the classroom. Just flipping through the syllabus made me smile. I couldn't wait to design my own experiments and study the wildlife in the Everglades, from insects to raccoons to alligators. This was the course that I had been waiting for ever since I had first come to Egmont.

Meanwhile, Jonas wrote a list on the whiteboard. "I'd like everyone to introduce themselves by telling me each of these things."

Your Name

Class Year

Where You're From

Five Things You Love

"I'll start," Jonas said. "As I said, I'm Jonas, this is my eighth year teaching at Egmont, and I'm originally from Austin, Texas. Five things that I love are learning new things, my wife, my daughter, tea, and my two turtles."

"You have turtles?" the girl next to me said.

Jonas' eyes lit up. "Yes, their names are Shuri and Nakia. I can show you pictures of them if you come to my office hours."