One week of the spring semester is already crossed off your calendar. By now, you (hopefully) have your schedule right, purchased all of your textbooks that you will never actually use and are ready for the all-nighters ahead of you. “Just two more months until spring break,” you keep telling yourself, “then two more months and summer will be here.” While the semester ahead seems endless, you’re excited for all the cute guys in your business class, are stoked to check out the hot new bar in town and are excited to make this “your semester.”

There’s just one problem…you have that one professor you cannot stand.

I know that situation all too well.

Your professor is going to be working you to the core this semester. Maybe she has a bad attitude and seems unapproachable. Or, maybe your professor just has no idea what she is doing. Whatever the situation may be, you’re not sure that you’ll make it out of this class alive.

Now, when I say, “I know that situation all too well,” I mean it. I had some issues with my adviser last semester. I felt she was not being very helpful. This caused a decent amount of tension between us and I thought, “Well, she’s just my advisor. I just have to meet with her maybe one or two more times throughout the semester, just to make sure everything is ‘OK’ for my graduation in May.”

Wrong.

I signed up for my classes, only to discover that she would be playing additional roles in my semester. In order to graduate, I need to take a capstone course (basically, it’s my senior year project that I spend the entire semester working on). I had to pitch a project idea, and she has to approve of it and is my mentor for it. I also have to take a field experience course where I am required to write for the university’s department newspaper. Lucky for me, she is the adviser of that and has to approve of all my stories before they can get published. Even better, I have to meet with her consistently one-on-one… for both classes. Keep in mind, I’m not the only student who isn’t the biggest fan of this professor.

However, as much as this professor is the last person I want to deal with this semester, I finally found a speck of hope. If I can accomplish this, chances are that you can as well.

My suggestion is to try talking to your professor. Now, I’m not saying that you need to have long conversations every single day, but maybe start with some small talk. If you are in the classroom early and she is in there as well, ask her how her weekend was. Maybe talk to her about the progress of the class assignment you’re working on or compliment her shirt. Little by little it will help to break down the barriers. I know I had to talk to my professor/adviser about my faith because it has to do with my semester project. I found myself being open to her in a way I never imagined I would be and she was actually able to relate in some ways! I also had a major issue with the registrar and she helped me immensely with the situation.

She’s still a bit intimidating as a professor, however, I actually feel like she cares about my academics. These conversations helped us to break out of the tension we were once in and although she may not be on my reference list in the future, I have made it my goal to feel comfortable talking to her. I want to feel confident about going to her for advice and for questions with my classes. Of course, every professor has a different personality, but at the end of the day, our professors were in our shoes at one point.

Just try…you never know...you may just get along.