Dr. Reuben May and Dr. Jane Sell
At StoryCorps, sociology professor Dr. Reuben A. May reflects on the connections he's made with students over the years and tells colleague Dr. Jane Sell how those experiences have enriched his life.
- [Dr. May] You know, I've had strange things happen to me from the classroom experience that I would, I would, like they're personal, but, but they, but you realize the students see you as a person. So one, like one really interesting thing, I like reggae music. There was a reggae club, having, having, they were playing some music at a reggae club, and the students that, well you like reggae or are you going? And I said, no. Now this is hard to believe. I'm a, this is back at Georgia. I'm an assistant professor. I've got two, I got a teenager and a brand newborn, and then you know, we livin' on one income because my wife didn't have a job when we got there. And I said, yeah I'd love it, but I mean I don't even have three bucks to go. And so, after class was over, I go downstairs to my office and opened the door, and someone had slipped $3 under the door for me to go. So I, so I went. Or the time that I came to class one day. I had on brown shoes and a black belt. And it was two African-American women in the front of the class, and they were goin' to town on me. A black belt, oh no you got brown shoes on. And they just kept goin' on and on. And I walked downstairs, and on my doorknob someone had placed a brand-new brown belt on the doorknob. And I was like, the next day I went to the young ladies and I was like, oh, thanks for the belt, thanks for the belt. They were like, we didn't do that. They were, yow we didn't do that [crosstalk]. Yow, we didn't do that. And it turned out it was one of my white students who, he, he had belt that was at his house that he didn't wear, and he gave it to me. And so, look, those are things that like, kinda, those are personal things. And then people's moms write me letters or send me gifts. Like that's kinda weird, but it really reflects the connection that the student has with me.
- [Dr. Sell] Yes.
- [Dr. May] Yeah. So I've been, it's been a privilege. So my life has actually been enriched more in a way just because I have those experiences. And it's hard to describe those to people and how they make you feel.
- [Dr. Sell] Um-hmm.
- [Dr. May] But, you know, when you have a parent who comes to your class, and it's the first college class he's ever been to, and he sent both his sons, and they both took your class, and they bragged on you, and they say, you gotta go to his class, and he, he comes to your class, and you talk to him just like he's a student. And he's engaged. It's just fantastic. But those are things that are very difficult to kinda capture when you share those with you know, people who are not connected with other people in this way.
- [Dr. Sell] Right.
- [Dr. May] So, yeah, it, it's been great for me, you know, I, and, it just makes me think about relationships, So I, I told you when I, when I discovered that you were really a great person [Laughter], we were, we were at--
- [Dr. Sell] You mean you didn't always know that?
- [Dr. May] No, I didn't know that, no. I just thought you worked around Tate, but when we went it was, it was, somebody was graduating. I think it was, I can't remember. It'll come back to me, but she got up and she said, you know, there was a time that I really wanted to quit. I was really having trouble, and Jane, Jane was just there for me, and she, then she said, oh yow, I needed somewhere to stay. And Jane let me stay at her house. And then somebody else gave a testimony that Jane let me stay at her house. I'm like, what is this? And it turns out that, that people both need that kind of that inspiration and upliftment, but also sometimes they need very concrete things. And when you can share your home, I think the home is a sacred place. Very few people get to come to my home, because it's where my family is. It's the place that I protect. And I've had students that've been there before. But it's a very, like if you get to go there, that's a very, you're in a very different category then, just someone that I know from passing. And so, if you can open your home up like that to people, that is, to me is a testament to kind of making life better for somebody else. Which is, which is selfless service [laughter].
- [Dr. Sell] So you talked about.