One of my work pals went to a PD during the week & was so excited to tell me that she had met someone that I was “friends” with. I believe her exact words were “GUESS who I ran into at my PD? You will NEVER guess!” Boy was I excited at this point. Who doesn’t Iove a good coincidence? The simple thought that dear Barty, from my regular day job had ran into one of my closest bosom buddies, from my other life, was almost unbearably exciting….
What happened next is what makes this so interesting.
When Barty finally released the name of my presumed amigo, I was so disappointed at my lack of every having heard of them, that I let out a resounding and despondent sigh, matched only by Barty’s sheer disappointment of having been led to believe that this person was somewhat of a kindred spirit to my own.
So I thought about it, then I thought about some more and came up with what will from this day forth be known as the Insignificance Factor- No wait, scrap that, a little too harsh for the point I’m trying to make. The Memorable Factor? Still harsh… perhaps it will come to me.
What I’m trying to explain is the fact that you meet a copious amount of people throughout your lifetime, yet only a few of them “stick” in your long term memory. And, quite clearly this “sticking” is not always reciprocated, as is with the curious case of the mystery pal. Now at this point you may be making assumptions about the opinion I have of myself being a “sticker” but believe me, I too have been one of the unstuck..(? Unstickable? Instickable?).... Anyway this year I am teaching year 12’s for the first time ever in my compact career as a teacher and at the end of last year, I met with them to run a day-long introductory session. I was so nervous about meeting this class because I desperately wanted them to have faith in me and hopefully see me as the most profound and memorable teacher of their entire schooling careers… Well, let me tell you, I left that first class believing that in the preceding 3 hours we had just spent together, I had inspired every single one of those darn kids, reaching them on some level never before achieved by any other teacher in the history of the whole wide world. (Cocky?)
5 weeks later, I am calling them all to make sure they have read the text. The silence that emerged from the other end of the receiver when I made my introductory “ Good morning XXXXXXXX, It’s Miss XXXXXXXXX here, just calling to see how you were doing with the holiday homework”, was completely and utterly heart-wrenchingly disheartening that I began interrogating my own memories of that first day. I was on the receiving end of a desperate case of the insignificance factor !
Well, STUCK YOU MAN !
Guess we can’t all be memorable to every memory… sorry anonymous friend! Call me ?
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