I don't want to look like an idiot in front of the professor

Celebrity status that is given to teachers starts at a very young age. Everyone remembers their first encounter with their grade teacher in the grocery store. I still remember the sinking in awe feeling I had when I saw my first teacher outside her normal habitat. Well after this image is established in our minds it stays there until we are fully done with school. Now, college is a beautiful thing a time for learning and coming into your own but one thing that I sometimes struggle with is talking to the professors. College is a little bit different than grade school they make professors out to be complete rock stars. Not only do most of them stand on stage but they have also hooked them up with microphones and some even have their own theme music. So the question is how to talk to a professor without being an idiot? Well for me this is still a working progress even now after being in college for almost three years I get the butterflies when walking up to professors. I am not sure what it is but I just feel like I am going to look like an idiot. I try to take a four step process to talk to a professor:

1. Know a clear idea of what you are going to ask. If you go up there blindly without a specific question in mind you will just bumble around.

2. Keep eye contact. As soon as you look away you are a goner it is so hard to reconnect after that plus you look disinterested.

3. Keep it light. Don't try to ask serious questions after class this just makes everyone involved extremely uncomfortable.

4. They are human. They function in the world just as we do. This is probably the hardest one for me to grasp.

As a tyro professional being able to network is key to my success and my professors are more often than not industry professionals or they worked in the industry so they are very valuable connections for someone like me. Plus it teaches me how to talk to people that i don't know very well a needed skill for networking. Talking to professors has given me an opportunity to build my confidence and also make a fool out of myself but in the end I know I won't look like too much of an idiot in front of the professor.