Thursday, August 09, 2012

love thursday 08.09.12 ~ greg, 30 years later

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.

Bell Hooks


I had lunch yesterday with a former student. We reconnected on Facebook. He lives in the East and was returning to go to his high school's 30 year reunion. He wanted to connect and I was happy to oblige.

Not only did I get to meet his lovely wife, Debbie, but I also received the most wonderful gift. Greg wanted to tell me how much he learned from being in my class. It wasn't just the grammar; although I know he learned that. The ideas he encountered from books I "required" them to read changed his life.

He was studying for seminary. Then he thought about ideas he read in those books. He switched his field of study to philosophy where he is PhD, ABD. And...he is a songwriter.

That's one. If that is the only student I reached (and I don't believe it is) it was worth it.

Thanks, Greg, for delivering the message in person. Thanks for showing me the love.

3 comments:

Joan said...

Thanks for sharing this story with us. I am happy that Greg was able to express his gratitude to you.

Wanda said...

I wrote this quickly and left out a very important sentence. What he said is that I made him think! Isn't that what education is about?

Susan O'Neil said...

I knew that you had taught but I didn't know it was English. And grammar to boot! FYI: You still make us think and you're still changing lives. You changed mine.