I am a mod.

Being a mod is addictive. At least for me it is. Not as much as chocolate or my pc, but it is coming close. I really love it.

Being a mod is something you do freely, no strings attached. We give up our free time to check lessons of others and send them a new lesson, when their lesson is approved. We are answering emails, help them with questions and problems and do this all for nothing. Although, for nothing is not really true.

I have been a mod for 6 years now and I can honestly say that I have a lot of online friends now, who started out as my students. At that time we had a good click and after they passed the class, we maintained contact. And it is not only your students. Working with people, doing the same thing you do and having the same problems you have, helps you get through it. It makes you "stronger" towards your students. There is always someone having your back.

But sometimes, somewhere in that pile of great, fine, want to learn as much as possible students, there is that rotten egg.

That egg that smells so badly, you want to get rid of it as soon as possible. It is that student that thinks you are behind the pc, 24 hours and only for them. That student that thinks, you don't have a personal life and sends his result for the third time in 30 minutes. That student that thinks you don't notice it, when he or she just copies the example in the lesson and submits it as her/his own. That student that thinks she can submit a tube of someone else and tells you to go to …. when she has to do a redone and now with the original image with it. That student, that doesn't even read the mini lessons and starts right away with sending you a list of questions with the request to answer him/her immediately, because he or she wants to continue with the lessons so badly and then never hear from her of him again.

And there is always that one with the attitude. I had my share of these people. The first time I doubted myself, but after a second and a third I just have to laugh.

Those students…all you really want to do, is give them back; get them off your list and never to deal with them again. But you can't. Because you know if you are about to give up, another mod will get them and that is not what you want.

These are not the students I am doing it for.

I am doing it for the students, who do want to learn something new; who always put a smile on my face, when they send me an email; the ones, who emailed me in the middle of the night, just because we both couldn't sleep; the ones who keep "following" you in other classes and requesting you for being their mod; the ones who asked for your address and sent you a Christmas present from another part of the world; the ones that make you cry, because they sent you an email with nothing more than good things about you; the ones that heard of you burning your hands to a hot dish and then sends you potholders, so you can't burn your fingers again; the ones that sends you emails when you twisted your ankle….and let me tell you, I can go on and on and on.

I am really happy that the majority of students are the ones from the second category.

When you have students like that and mods always having your back, then being a mod is awesome and no rotten egg is going to change that.