End of semester stress can be good. Very good.

I teach journalism and media classes. I've done it a long time. And something that happens every semester is that in the last 2-3 weeks (especially poignant with seniors), there's an explosion. Or several. Some of them are bad. But some are an explosion of ideas, imagination and thinking that has been dormant for the previous 12 or 13 weeks.

This semester I'm teaching a Media Capstone class and the things my students are coming up with, most of them widely divergent from what they began with, are knocking my socks off. They're talking about mental illness and psychology and Christian perspective (or neglect); they're talking about the ways iPhones can create commercials as compelling as any crazy-expensive camera gear out there. They're talking about the history of food media (cooking in particular) and how the Internet has made shows like Julia Childs' a possibility for anybody with a kitchen and some video gear. One is exploring how music we make can explain and celebrate our ethnic roots. Then there's the thrifter. She's telling the story of how resale shops are being invaded by rich people trying to get richer off the cast-off clothing of the semi-rich.

They're each doing a kind of Ted Talk (two cameras, in our state-of-the-art studio) about what it all means.

Hoo. I love this job.