A description of a 45-year university teaching career which included the development of a Speech and Communications department at California Polytechnic State University reveals that even though burn-out is a periodic influence on professional performance, one overriding element--a love of teaching--sustained the commitment of this professor. A few suggestions for maintaining a healthy attitude toward the profession and for coping with large teaching loads are set forth: (1) accept your students as they are and not as you would like them to be; (2) remember that when a teacher's patience becomes threadbare, a student's challenge begins; (3) allow for periodic time-outs that enable the development of scholarly activity and exchange; and (4) aim to turn the young student not into a copy-cat, but into an independent and self-motivating learner. (SAM)