I accepted

Last week my Aunt was in town.


It has been probably twenty years since I saw her last.

She is my mom's twin sister.

It was wonderful to hang out with her...

and to watch her and my mom together.

They don't look all that much alike.

There mannerisms and speech, though, that is a different story.

Anyway, this post isn't really about our visit.

It's about something that happened a million years ago I had forgotten.

See, when I was in high school, I spent a year as an exchange student in Denmark.

My mom and her family are Norwegian.

I didn't want to live in Norway.

That would have been too close, but I wanted to be close enough to visit.

And I did visit several times.

My aunt reminded me of one of those visits.

She asked me if I remembered visiting a local high school.
I had to think about it a second, but then I remembered.

She said the teacher who hosted me that day still asks after me.

How sweet is that?

That day is what I want to write about in this post.

As part of one of my visits, I was invited to speak to some classes at a school about life in America.

I accepted.

That was more than twenty years ago.

Though I had forgotten about it, this was a pretty big deal at the time.

Here is what I remember:

In typical teenage fashion, I did not prepare well.

It was fun.

I made kids laugh.

The first class I spoke to, it went great.

Towards the middle of the day, I was stiffer, less spontaneous, and more self-conscious.

But I got better again near the end.

That was probably the first time I ever performed, presented, stood in front of a room of students to deliver information.

I hadn't thought about that day in a long long long time.

In retrospect, I imagine that day had a pretty big impact.

Like, I've never been scared of looking stupid while teaching kind of impact.

I don't know.

What I know is it was super flattering to know I made enough of an impression that the host teacher remembers and asks about me.

I know it was nice to be reminded of such a pleasant memory.

When I say teaching is in my blood, it might really be true.

These are good things.