Sometimes it's weird to look back on middle school, and the teachers who brought our generation up as young kids being told about the future. I'm an adult now, and I feel like an adult now, but in a way it feels like I'm still a part of that group of dumb and naive kids. It doesn't feel that long ago at all. But the reality is that all of us are now pushing 40, and our time there is now wholly irrelevant, and we're so far removed from those years that it's fucking wild. A lot of those teachers are probably dead now.

I don't know how to articulate what it is I'm meaning to say here. It's just weird that we were kids so recently. I don't feel like my life has gone by all that fast, but middle school to 40 somehow did all the same. I feel my age, and I feel as though I've lived to my age, but my memories don't feel distant whatsoever. It feels like that was nine years ago.

Just like I feel like I was still living at home with my dad a few years ago, but I've been living in another country away from my parents for 7 years now, and my dad had been dead since last May.

He was such a good dad.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Its always good to hear that some of them were good people.

[–] Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I took my kid to the doctor, and when we left she asked if we could go visit the places I grew up and went to school. Drove by my grade school but didn’t stop in, still in session. Went by my junior high and there was my science teacher, she was probably a few years from retirement.

I said hi and we talked for a bit, told her “no, not a parent, you were my teacher almost 30 years ago”, and she got a huge smile on her face and was really happy one of her students recognized her and talked with her for a while.

Made the trip worth it, but I am glad she didn’t remember me. Was a shithead kid in junior high, but I think we all kind of were at that age.

[–] Flummoxed@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

This is the absolute best gift you can give a teacher, to come back and say to us, "You made a difference; I remember you."

We don't get to know if we really did anything unless this happens.

Source: watching my mum as a 40+ year teacher and my own 10+ years in the profession.

ETA: Space I could not live with.

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