Yesterday was a lot of school work with a tiny break for my Ed Tech group meeting. In the evening, Dan went to Gameworks with Ben, Matt, and Jim (Matt’s Dad), where he apparently won 36 matches in a row at Street Fighter. Word on the street is that he trained in Japan. Someone told him, “It’s been an honor.” Oh, I can’t stop laughing. I married the best geek ever!
Anyway, while Dan was on his streak, I was reading a book for my Politics of Curriculum class and in the book, the author mentioned DH Lawrence, and for some bizarre reason I remembered that at some point, I had bought a collection of his works, and at that moment, I also thought, “Maybe I should read them!” (in my spare time, right?). So, I went to the bookshelf to grab the fat text and in the first few pages was a bookmark I haven’t seen for about ten years. In fact, I don’t think I remembered it existed until just then. On one side was a note from my Honors Pre-Calc/Agebra II teacher in high school:

In case you can’t read it, it says:
Dear Laurie,
You have been a pleasure to teach this year. You are a Bright individual with such a happy and outgoing personality. Thanks for adding much to the classroom. I hope you have many good memories to take with you as you leave! Best of Luck to you, Laurie!
Congratulations!
Mrs. Weil
Aside from the weird capitalization, I’m not going to lie, it made me cry a little. I was such a crazy, carefree, immature, happy person in high school and I remember this class in particular. I was usually decently good at math, so I didn’t study much for the first quiz. When I got the quiz back, I got a C and I about DIED. I was so nervous to have anything but an A. So, from then on, I paid intense attention and participated like a maniac. No kidding, I would flail my arm in the air to answer every question because I needed to understand. Once I did “get it,” I had great fun trying to get a better score than our Italian exchange student who sat next to me and would taunt me with a 97% to my 96%. He was learning in a second language, the punk! We had a party at the end of the year and Mrs. Weil brought in party hats and snacks and I just loved it. I loved that class, but I had no recollection of this bookmark, and it made me feel really good to find it. Especially at a moment like this in my career as a student-plus. Oftentimes I get so serious in class that I forget to laugh and enjoy it. I get so worried about not appearing to know what I’m talking about that I can lose my sense of humor. I need to lighten up.
On the other side of the bookmark is “A Student’s Prayer” (I went to Catholic school, in case you didn’t know):

I like the last stanza the best:
Let me always keep on learning,
Even when the class is done;
May I use my knowledge wisely,
So it works for everyone.
Okay, so I haven’t use Pre-Calc to help anyone, but Amen!