Teachers

There are some people who are memorable because they are excellent people.... and then there are those that are so un-excellent that they become remembered for that as well.... Funny how that works. You can be perfectly ordinary and nice and no one will remember you. Story of my life right! I need to start being extraordinary..... or really mean to be remembered. But this is not about me. This is about some of the teachers I remember while in High School.

I remember Coach Koenig. I don't remember if I actually had any classes with him, but obviously by his name; he was my coach. He was probably my favorite coach right along with another long distance coach that I can't place the name to. He was a long distance coach and a genuinely good guy- the unnamed coach. Koenig was my short distance coach. He worked all of us students hard and treated us well. He didn't play favoritism, or if he did, he didn't show it. I have a real problem with coaches that play favorites.

Then there was Carp. Carpstein I think was his full name. Everyone just called him Carp. I was in one of his very last classes as a teacher. He was the kind of teacher that exuded love, excitement, and devotion to his students. He truly loved what he did and every student knew it. He respected us. Which says a lot of a man who can respect teenagers. He made me want to be a better student. A better learner. And a better person. Thank you Carp.

Who had Mr. Daley? Anyone. I hear he no longer teaches at GHS. I felt like Daley was probably my smartest teacher. I think I may have asked him once why he was teaching us, instead of working at a university or elsewhere. He made me think deeper about the world around me. He made a good student- or at least I thought I was good student- an even better one. His style of teaching was creative and just what I needed. I remember one day coming into class and all of the desks were turned upside-down or sideways. It looked like a small tornado had ripped through the room. And then there was Mr. Daley in the center of all. "Welcome to the stone ages," he said. I wish more teachers were like him.

Infamous teachers- which doesn't actually mean they were bad teachers. They could have just been mean, slightly strange, or played favorites. There was the one math teacher that would always yell at us when we would get a little rowdy. There was the science teacher with the metal plate in his head that just didn't seem to be all the way there. (teaching isn't for you if you're brain isn't functioning fully), there was the some sort of arts teacher that played favoritism. If you were allowed to hang out with this teacher outside of class time, for whatever reason, it felt like a privilege. Not cool to make students feel left out or not good enough to be around you. Then of course there were the few teachers I specifically remember that were just bad teachers. One couldn't explain the concepts, the other made it so incredibly easy to get an A that I didn't even have to go to his/her finals test because I already had 115% in the class....

Thank you all my teachers for being memorable. In one way or the other. High School just wouldn't have been High School without the amazing/funny/rude/horrible/strange teachers that were there!

First Kiss

I can't remember how long Nathan and I had been dating by the time we first kissed. I don't think it was very long.... or we could have not even been dating at all for that matter. This was my first kiss, ever. Kisses to me were very special. I don't go handing out kisses like some people do, they are very special and personal to me. Not saying that people who like to kiss a lot don't feel the same way. So yes.... my sophomore year was my first kiss.

We were over at Nathan's house watching a movie. I cannot for the life of me remember what movie. He might remember though, I don't know. He and I were cuddling and flirting and not paying one bit of attention to the movie. Poor Scott Varco was there with us. He was Nathan's best childhood friend and Scott was nice enough to just ignore us. We finally, for whatever reason, decided to hide under a blanket. Just thinking about it makes me smile- that's so silly! Maybe Nathan knew the only way to get me to kiss him was to do it in 'secret', under a blanket.

I remember us goofing around for a bit under the blanket, that only means that he would try to tickle me or vice versa. Finally our faces ended up very close to each other. We just stared at one another for a second. I was just watching his lips. I was terrified that I was going to do it all wrong.

Neither one of us moved in first. We both connected and it was kind of a mess. haha. His mouth was moving one way and I felt like my lips were trying to play catch up with his lips. It lasted about 15 seconds before we stopped. I'm guessing that at this moment Scott knew EXACTLY what was going on. We weren't making anymore juvenile noises any longer. But we sure thought we were being sneaky.

After the first kiss I couldn't stop smiling and neither could he. So we kissed again. And this time we were much more in sync. I loved kissing him in high school. I just couldn't get enough of it.

I still can't believe that was what.... 7 years ago? Time really does fly.