It was this time of year, 17 years ago.

I sat in a small room on the second floor of the CUB at a table filled with members of Amarillo College’s English Department. Most of them have long since left or retired: Hodges, Huber, McGinnis, Knight, Zimmermann, Ford and Woodyard (only Dodson and Netherton remain).

And they asked questions. Not the ones I expected—about my dissertation at Texas Tech, about the major theories and theorists of rhetorical studies.

No, these educators wanted to know if I would be comfortable teaching mostly Comp I classes for freshmen. You see, most English majors want to instruct literature classes: American, British, Literature of the Western and Non-western worlds.

“Comfortable?” I said. “That would be my dream job.”

And it has been.