Shed a Little Tear, again

So on this my year anniversary in Davis I cried twice. These past two years have been quite emotional and on an anniversary such as this you cannot help but reflect. As I typed the title of this blog I had a feeling that I used it before. Surprisingly enough it's only from the beginning of June.

At band practice last night, I got a text from Tony suggesting I come into SF today because he had the day off. I just didn't feel like spending the money on a train ticket and really wanted to lay low in Davis. So this morning, I got out of bed and after a few unsuccessful tries to get online, I took a shower and walked to campus. I sat outside of Dutton Hall and finally got a connection. A group of what seemed to be high school students perhaps at a UCD sponsored camp or maybe orientation walked by. They each had a name tag on and matching t-shirts and they asked me if I was a professor.

"No, I'm a grad student, sorry."

As they walked away with their maps I had the wherewithal to ask if they were on a scavenger hunt. And indeed they were. I then said that I am a grad student, but I am teaching 2 classes this summer. Sounded like a professor to them! They were elated, ran back to me, took my photo and asked for my name and department to add to their list. They then asked where some art galleries might be and I pointed them along.

When I got back home I called Tony and it sounded like he had a plan for his day. I was able to connect again to the internet from my apartment and decided to finish up my grading and submit final grades. Of my 60 students there were mostly As, two B+s and 2 C+s.

Ever since I created the Facebook event page for the Hip Hop showings I started to get requests from the students to add me as a friend. I do not feel comfortable doing that while they are current students, so as of this morning, I went ahead and added all 9 requests. They were all from my first class. This did not surprise me since my first class was so much more of an ensemble than my second. The second class had more people late or with absences. They also were not as quick to thank me after the showing yesterday nor did anyone ask me to be in photos with them. This afternoon, I did get two friend requests from my second class, but one was only because he wanted to message me and ask what happened to his lost ipod.

On Facebook I made today's status "Hope celebrates one year in Davis" to which I got this message on my wall from Lynn in my first class.

Gratz on ur one year in Davis! We welcome u with big Hugs! o(^.^)o Ur hip Hop class was the most exciting thing in my life.

Reading that just made me weep. It's an amazing feeling to make that much of an impact on someone's life. After the second showing, one of the girls from my first class came up to me and said that my class was the best she's ever taken at UCD. Chau is a shy little thing and always asked me questions over email or sent someone else to ask me on her behalf. But this time she used her own words and gave me a huge hug.

Powerful stuff.

To celebrate, I found the second Zia's gift certificate and my Regal Free Movie certificate and had a freebie afternoon. A yummy Roma sandwich and lemon Pellegrino as I watched Mamma Mia. In the darkness as I viewed the beautiful Grecian landscape on the big screen, I reflected on the past and a disastrous flight from Atlanta to Sacramento a year ago today -- and just cried.