The unorthodox professor

Knowledge. Power. Life. Experience.

If there is nothing else in this world, these four traits are what define us, as human, as a people. From the first spark of life in this universe, to the birth of civilization and beyond, these qualities are what have helped us to grow and thrive, to expand into what we are today. Life so we can live, knowledge so we can learn, power so we can influence, and experience, so we can survive. This planet, every person and thing on its surface, exemplify these gifts to the highest of values, which brings us here to the modern day and age, thriving.

But how, one may ask, did all of this begin?

Some look to science, with their laws and theories of physics and the elements for an answer. Others look to religion, with firm beliefs of a higher, divine power manipulating the events of our existence. There are those who immerse themselves in the tomes of history, seeking to find an answer to this riddle we call existence, while there are others who look to the heavens above, with ideas of a more extraterrestrial influence on this world. But who is right, and who is wrong?

I mean seriously, how can that question be answered? It might sound simple, but remember, the only way to really find truth and enlightenment is to learn from all facets and discern the nonsense from the real, using your own good judgment to form your own opinion to live by. With the amount of ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ this world has, it has just as many lies and falsehoods. History as a whole, well, it’s filled with so many different versions of the same story that the average person would just give up. This isn't even factoring in that with the vast amount of grains in the sands of time, for every bit of knowledge this world does have, there is no doubt ten times as much that has been lost to the world, by both natural and unnatural means. You could very well say that the true answer is the biggest secret of them all, with time itself against anyone in their search for it.

But what if this ‘secret’ wasn’t such a secret?

There may be some who know the answer to how this all came to be. Maybe there are people who ‘remember’ the knowledge of the past that was lost, hidden, in history. Maybe there are those who seek to reach true enlightenment, like the philosophers of old. Maybe, but I do know this: History does tell of people like that, but for some reason, every single one of them have met their end. Why? I don’t know; some think that this ‘secret’ is something to be feared, a knowledge to be wiped out.

That’s the view of the ignorant; I believe that this ‘secret’ shouldn’t be such a secret anymore. But who am I to tell it? The answer is yours to find; you just have to know where to look, and how to look. Who knows? It might be staring you right in the face.

      Ryu Senko

***

 “How long is this guy going to take?” a significantly pale, blonde haired teen yelled out.  “It’s two o’clock! I should already be pre gaming with the senior’s right about now!” There was an expression of clear annoyance on his face as he sat on the edge of a desk inside a classroom of freshmen. This kid, Riley O' Connor, was one of many freshmen who had arrived at the world renowned Princeton University for the 2008 fall semester. Noted for its stellar academic and athletic programs, the university had a knack of attracting a variety of individuals, each different in their own way. One of a kind, but each having something unique to bring to the table.  

Just from his looks, the average person could tell that Riley easily fit into the 'unique' category. From a purely physical standpoint, Riley was impressive even for an 18 year old, standing almost at an even six feet and having a broad yet streamlined build. He wore an orange and black football varsity jacket, a nod to the traditional university colors, unzipped to show a white v neck tee shirt underneath, as well as black jeans. He did look like a decent kid, but the attitude that he had been displaying since the time he had walked into the room a half hour prior showed an arrogance that had other freshmen in the classroom pre-emptively labeling him as a muscle-headed jock.

“You know Riley,” another one of the freshmen, a female with dark honey brown eyes and long black hair said as she looked up from the pamphlet she was busily reading to pass the time. “It doesn’t sound like you care much anyway; why don’t you just leave?”

“Because baby,” Riley said, standing up from his seat to lean on the adjacent wall. “If I leave it will be counted against me, and I don’t want the lateness of a professor to be the reason I miss playing in the first game of the season. How else am I supposed to show the ladies how awesome I am!?” Riley flashed Ashley a haughty smirk as some of the other freshmen laughed with him, but quickly shut up as she flashed him the middle finger. She had no patience for guys with an attitude like Riley’s, and the jock had not helped his case any by shamelessly attempting to flirt with every girl in the room in the first five minutes to pass the time.

‘Such a shame too,’ Ashley thought as she turned her attention back to her pamphlet. ‘He should be one of the ones in here to appreciate the academics of Princeton.’ She took another glance at her pamphlet and let out a slightly depressed sigh as she glanced again at Riley, more specifically the one feature on him that truly set him apart from the other freshmen in the classroom, that being his vibrant purple eyes. She wasn’t going to kid herself; if she could ever get past his attitude, Riley was an alright looking guy, but it was his eyes, and what they meant, that she couldn’t get past. They might have worked on most of the other females in the room, especially the short Spanish girl that was now making conversation with him, but his eyes told her something deeper about him that made her even more disgusted in his attitude. She sighed as she cast a glance at the pamphlet she was reading. ‘Talk about staring you right in the face, eh Ryu Senko?’

“So football and frat life is more important than you getting a degree?” another one of the teens, this one a gangly looking, dark haired kid with silver rimmed glasses and dressed in a professional looking suit and tie, asked, generally surprising the class as the freshmen had obviously directed his question at Riley. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about advancing and bettering yourself, especially in a university such as this?”  

Riley just raised an eyebrow in mock curiosity before bursting out into amused laughter. “No one asked you, Dr. Spock,” Riley said with a demeaning snort. “Learn to dress this century by the way.” That was followed swiftly by most of the class laughing at Riley’s crack at the spectacled teen.

“Well,” a new voice said, ringing with a subtle yet powerful timbre that came from behind the slightly cracked door at the front of the room. “I didn’t think I would have to deal with a student disrespecting his fellow classmates this early.” This voice was deep, yet almost melodic sounding to the teens assembled in the classroom, and somehow they knew that this was their tardy professor. However, Riley took the words from the professor like a shot to the heart; he felt like the teacher was speaking to him like a child, something that easily riled him up.

“Deal with me?” Riley said with a mocking grin, pushing himself off the wall to walk up to the cracked door, in his rage not realizing that the door was swiftly opening. “I don’t know who you think you are but no one ‘deals’ with Riley O’Connor, you got th-!”

“Continue,” the teacher said, a bit more menacingly as pushed the door the rest of the way open to step inside the classroom. “Please. Give me an excuse to tell your coach you don’t need to play Riley O’Connor.” When Riley, who had all but frozen in his speech and walking, didn’t respond, the man smirked at the lost nerve of the teen. “What? For someone who has a lot to say, you sure are quiet.”

Riley, however, stood dumbstruck at the sheer presence of their professor, silenced by the oppressive feeling that suddenly seemed to weigh down on his body and soul. The professor was a tall tan skinned man, 6’3 to be exact, easily surpassing Riley’s own height of 5’11, and judging by the way he filled out the short sleeved black polo and black jeans that he wore, was a heck of a lot more athletic. It wasn’t just his impressive build that froze Riley in his tracks, no, it was the ice cold stare the man was giving him with his royal blue eyes, framed by a stern expression and long black locks of hair that made the man look like a cross between a professional athlete and a movie star.

Riley wasn’t the only one who was surprised by the appearance of their professor; Ashley found herself taking quite a few double takes from her pamphlet to the professor with a barely concealed look of disbelief. ‘You have got to be kidding me,’ she thought as she took one more glance at the professor before looking back at the article she was reading, more specifically the photo of the author of said article. ‘He’s gonna be my professor!?’ As she looked at the similarities between the person in the photo and the real life professor, it couldn’t be clearer if it smacked her in the face. ‘First Riley and now you? Must be my lucky day; two in fifteen minutes.’

“U-u-uh,” Riley said, stuttering as he backed away cautiously from the professor, running into one of the desks behind him in his fear.

“Save it, and sit down,” the professor said, pointing to an empty seat in the classroom. Riley surprised everyone by doing what the professor said without any type of argument. Some of the students in the classroom just took it as a bully being put in their place by a teacher that took their job seriously. “Now,” the professor said, seeing that the class was more or less ready for him to begin from his quick disciplining of Riley. “For those who don’t know who I am, or those students who forgot to read the student handbook, I am the head of the History and Politics department here at Princeton University, and also your professor for this semester. My name is Raven Edge, but you can just call me Raven. I’m not one for many formalities.”

Raven was interrupted by the Spanish girl who had been talking with Riley, who was raising her hand in earnest. “Um, with all due respect, wouldn’t one of the other professors have a problem with that?”

Raven smirked at the question; already he had thrown his class for a loop, and he hadn’t even gotten to the orientation. “Well, Miss-“

“Del Rio,” She said with a shy grin on her face. “Selena Del Rio.”

“Selena,” Raven said with an acknowledging nod. “If they have a problem with it they can come to me,” he said before turning around to write on the massive blackboard that was mounted on the wall. “But I doubt they will, as many of the teachers here know my preferences. That though is neither here nor there; right now though, it’s time for me to give you an overview of what’s going to happen this semester, as well as a preview for the years ahead.” Raven paused for a moment as he wrote his name, along with the list of courses he was responsible for on the board. “I realize my lateness might have interfered with some of your plans, so I apologize in advance if we go over the allotted time scheduled. I’m not like most of the professor’s here; in due time you’ll see why.”

‘That’s the understatement of the year,’ Ashley thought as she continued to eye Raven, still in disbelief that her professor was the same freelance philanthropist/ philosopher she had become a fan of. Raven Edge was a man of many worlds, both figuratively and literally. Ashley, being a fan of his written works, which was titled under the pen name of Ryu Senko, knew a lot of facts about Raven Edge the man, from his first rise to the world stage as a talented freestyle martial artist in his teens, to his volumes of short essays and opinion works that dotted the blog scene and had established a cult following. She knew he was an enigma, in a way that would shock most, if not all of the freshmen had they realized what was staring them right in the eyes. ‘It’s not like he’s really hiding it.’ Those thoughts drew her attention to one of the other unique things about the professor: the tribal looking tattoo sleeve that adorned his right arm.    

“As long as I can still have a cold one later,” Riley mumbled to himself as he lowered his head. However, he wasn’t as quiet as he had thought in his mumblings, as he found himself hit in the head with a balled up piece of paper, which surprisingly not only hurt, but accomplished the task of righting his head and body to a proper posture state.

“A word of advice,” Raven said pointedly as he stared Riley in the eye, in the process making Riley’s earlier state of fear creep back. “The consumption of alcohol on campus is against school policy, especially when the accused is underage. If caught, the consequences can lead up to and including expulsion, and that’s not counting the legal ramifications.” A pregnant pause followed that statement; everyone knew the rules on campus, but it was that much more intimidating when you knew you had a professor that would have an eye out for that sort of thing. Do we have an accord?”

“Yes sir,” Riley said quickly, fully intimidated, yet again, by Raven’s speech.

“Good,” Raven said, turning back to the blackboard as he continued to write down a bunch of useful information for the students. “Now, I would like to start this orientation off with a simple question: what position was every professor, dean, principal or teacher in before they became as such?”

“Is that a trick question?” one of the other students called out.

“No,” Raven said, before throwing another balled up piece of paper at the kid, this time without turning around. Still, said kid had to move his head to keep the ball of paper from hitting him in the forehead, which mildly surprised the class due to Raven’s accuracy. “And I like it when you raise your hand to speak before doing so.” Raven stopped writing before turning around to discern to looks on the students’ faces. Ashley suddenly had a victorious look on her face, and raised her hand with a slight amount of eagerness. “You have an answer?”

“Yes,” Ashley said with a confident smirk. “It’s actually simple if you don’t over think it. They were all the same as us; students in a class.”

“Correct,” Raven said, a little hesitation evident in his speech as he gave Ashley a curious look. “You seem like you have a head for these types of questions, so I’m going to give you first dibs to answer this next one. As in the words of the great philosopher Socrates, why?”

“Well,” she said with an even bigger smirk. “You can’t teach if you don’t have the qualifications to do so. Teachers need at least a bachelor’s degree if not a masters, and that’s not counting specialty classes and skills.”

“Right, but a little too in depth,” Raven said. As he saw the looks of confusion on the faces of the class, he walked around his desk at the front of the room to sit on it, facing the students before he addressed them again. “The point I’m trying to make is this: we all were in your shoes at one time. Despite our different baccalaureate goals, we went to different schools and universities in order to learn. Now, fast forward a good twenty years….well, for most of these old crones anyway.” Raven sparked the class into a small bit of laughter at his little joke, making a point that he was younger than most of the professors at Princeton at a mere 34 years of age. “And now we are teachers, teaching all or you, the next generation. We do our jobs with various amounts of success, but many of us older people forget one critical detail in the realms of teaching.”

“And that is?” one of the students in the back of the class, an Indian looking kid with shoulder length black hair and golden brown eyes, asked.

“That the job of teaching isn’t complete without remembering that we too can learn,” Raven said. Raven pointedly stared at the students in an attempt to get his point across. “Too many of us in the older generation, from teachers and professors, to anyone in any occupation beyond the age of thirty, think that for some reason, our age makes us ‘better’ than the youth. True, we have experience that we can and should pass down to the next generation, but too often we fail to realize, or just choose to disregard, that we can learn just as much from the youth as you all can learn from us. Each of us has differences that make us unique, and because of those differences, it stands to reason that any two people can have different experiences. Now do the math and put an exponent on that; this world is too large, with too many people, each with their own walks of life and experiences, that we can’t learn from and teach one another, regardless of certifications and degrees.”

The freshmen students for the most part were surprised at the down to earth viewpoint of Raven. Not many people had that kind of view, especially when it came to schoolteachers and professors. Too often they could remember being shot down by an older person simply because that elder was indeed older than they were, regardless if they made any kind of sense.

“So what does this have to do with your orientation today Mr. Edge?” the same kid asked after a minute of contemplating Raven’s words.

Raven smiled at the kid before speaking once again. “It’s simple; I’m going to take everything I just said and put it into action. I want to learn from you just as you learn from me; teach me as I teach you. The start of that is this orientation; each of you are going to introduce yourselves to me and the rest of this group, along with something that makes you unique. Me; I happen to be not just a department head for a university, but I’m also an avid fan of the martial arts and a self- described seeker of knowledge.” Raven took that moment to gauge the reaction of his students, and found exactly what he was looking for in the knowing look from Ashley. He had figured that the girl knew some of the more ‘important’ things about him; he saw the familiar issue of ‘Real Times’ in her clutches the moment he had stepped foot in the classroom. What he was not expecting, was that same look of familiarity in the faces of a select few of the other freshmen, least of all in Riley.

‘All right,’ the teen in the suit thought as he gave Raven a look similar to the one Ashley and Riley were giving him. ‘At least this year I can be myself without worrying about this class. Especially with this guy as the professor.’ After taking a steady breath, the teen started with his introduction, speaking to the entire class with a voice that lacked quite a bit of confidence. “I’m Jordan Reid, a history major from Robbinsdale, Minnesota.” Raven gave Jordan a look of encouragement as he beckoned him to continue. “I was a member of my school’s honor society, academics team and chess club, as well as the-.”

“Nerd,” Riley coughed, before being hit with yet another balled up piece of paper by Raven, along with a stern glare that shut up the jock.

Jordan, though, suddenly stood up with an air of confidence that he had not shown before inside the classroom, which was easily noticed by the other teens and Raven, who had an idea on what was coming next due to reading his student’s files a short time earlier. “Nerd?” Jordan asked, this time in a much louder voice than before. “So you think I’m a nerd, just because of my interests?”

Riley burst out laughing in obnoxious laughter, finding the ‘nerd’ funny. “Well,” Riley laughed as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. ”If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, then what is it?”

Jordan’s response was to open the briefcase that he had next to him and withdraw an old looking newspaper. Without flipping through it, he stood up, walked over to Riley’s desk, and slammed the newspaper down with a victorious smirk. “Read it and weep a*****e.” Riley smirked at Jordan before picking up the newspaper, if only to further humor himself, but his face dropped into a look of disbelief as he read the paper.  On the front of the newspaper was a picture of Jordan in a football uniform, from his previous senior year in high school if the date on the newspaper was accurate, with the headline being ‘Reid wins it all!’ Going down the article, Riley’s arms shook in steadily increasing anger as he read some of Jordan’s stats, finding that the gangly kid was a heck of a halfback with more rushing yards than he had passing as a quarterback.

“This is bullshit!” Riley yelled before ripping the newspaper in half out of fury. “You’re telling me a nerd is a better football player than I am!?”

“Well,” Jordan said with a quick, almost imperceptible flick of the eyes at Raven. “When you have the ability to dodge any free safety and run a 4.1…” Jordan shrugged with a small hidden smile as the rest of the freshmen’s attention was now on the ‘new’ star of the classroom.

Raven held back a snicker as he saw the range of emotions wash over Riley’s face, knowing that Jordan had successfully shut the hotheaded jock up. “Now that that’s settled,” Raven said with a pointed look in Riley’s direction. “Riley, I hope you learned a valuable lesson today.”

“Which was?” Riley asked, crossing his hands over his chest, now in a sour mood.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Raven said with a grin. “Which is another one of the points to my orientation. Now, who wants to be next?” This time several of the teens raised their hands, forcing Raven to have to choose just one at a time. He didn’t mind; this is what he lived for, the ability to teach and influence in a unique way. ‘Although,’ he thought, remembering what he had saw in a few of the freshmen. ‘I will have to have a conversation with a few of them after this is all over. Learning is nice, but sometimes it’s best to control what is learned, depending on what the subject matter is.’ With that thought in mind, he called on Ashley, who was all too eager to make her introduction to the class.