I am sometimes surprised by random messages I receive from former students who have come across posts of mine or videos that I have made or they recognized me on stage and these former kids more often than not reach out and tell me I had a profound influence on their life. It is both heart warming and validating that that portion of my life was not purposeless and a waste beyond making a living. One encounter was with a young man with a beard who approached me after a set and called me “MR. HANCHET”. He asked me to guess who he was and I honestly had no clue who he might be. I asked for a clue. He said I taught him in first grade at a school I hadn’t taught at for around twenty years. He was disappointed that I still was unable to guess, but twenty years is a long time. I maintained my youthful appearance (eyeroll) but he went from being a mousy grade one kid to this bearded behemoth. When he told me his name, I actually remembered, but said to him: “Oh yeah, you haven’t changed a bit…” He missed the sarcasm.

As I age further away from my mostly cherished long and varied teaching career, encounters like this happen less and less. 

Last night I dreamt that I was at a local restaurant called Sciroli’s which is a place I have only been to before to celebrate events such as birthdays or retirements. From across the room I made eye contact with a beautiful young woman who ,when we made eye contact confirmed it was me and put her two hands up to form a heart. She immediately came over to my table and we embraced. She had obviously been an important student of mine and judging from her age, probably ten years had passed since we last saw each other. I, for the life of me, could not conjure up her name. In my defence, this was a dream, so she may have been a composite of many students, and the last time we would have met if she was an actual student she was a pre pubescent girl. The shame and guilt I felt for not recognizing who this was beyond her being a student woke me from my slumber. 

There are some students I still have correspondence with and some whose lives I am able to keep track of because I am friends with a parent or other family members, this apparition was not one of them. 

I haven’t had any encounters from beyond the grave (either of us). I can wait.