Thanks Teach.

Yesterday was a wonderful day where after months of saying "why don't we?" and weeks of planning and coordinating I finally met up with my former Jr. High school English teacher and Dance Club faculty advisor. We met halfway from her house to mine, in Sharon Springs New York. Catching up on our families and our lives, it was a wonderful and enjoyable visit with a good friend. We have kept in touch intermittently over the years and through mutual friends and acquaintenances have never been far from each other's hearts. This is a teacher who was an inspiration and a motivator. The kind of teacher who really challenged her students and also rewarded them with her respect. She really like her kids (or seemed to!) and that made the difference. So many teachers seem to have chosen the wrong field, not because they don't know their subject, but because they don't seem to really like kids. Interesting. . . But, here we are, many years later, and enjoying each others company and our shared memories of another time. We've both ended up serendipitously in the central part of New York, just a few miles from a lovely lunch and shopping trip through some pretty darn fantastic little shops. We got to catch up on the details of our lives, those that we were so proud of, and some that we ruefully could laugh at. It is so interesting to me that we all meet up eventually as "adults" and the years between us(which seem so great when we're young) melt away when we reach this point. If only you could know when you're suffering through Middle School (or Jr. High as we called it then) that maybe someday you and this teacher of yours may meet for a cup of coffee somewhere between here and there, and become friends and contemporaries. How many would believe it? Sometimes life hands you such a teacher, and it is a gift that keeps on giving. This lifeline of mine, who was so pivotol in my education and my love of poetry, dance, theatre and the arts, is still participating in all those things and proving to me that life really is the exciting journey that she told us about then. She is living it still, with all the same enthusiasm and inspiration. Thank you Susan. It was, all in all, a totally wonderful and special day for me. It's not often we get to thank those who were pivotal in our development, and continue to be that person for us. If you have the chance, you should take it. It's worth the trip.