I went back to my high school today to see my old teachers. I’ve been kind of nervous that I would meet one of them in the grocery store, and s/he would say, “Why haven’t you come back to say hi?” and I’d have to say, “Well . . . I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

I got to see several of them. All of them are a little older, with a little more grey hair, but otherwise just like I remember. Mr. Fried, my English teacher, is still teaching in his trailer outside the main school building, just like he was nine years ago. He’s moved up to teaching 10^th grade gifted and 11^th grade college prep – an improvement over teaching three sections of 9^th grade English. I was happy to find that his family’s doing well and his daughter is about to get married.

I also saw Mrs. Frady, my trig teacher. I never took to well to math, but she made it as fun and interesting as the subject matter allowed, and I have good memories of her class.

Finally, I saw Mrs. Stephenson, my Algebra II teacher. Her son David is my age, and we grew up in school together. He just got married (she showed me pictures), and I’m very happy for him.

It was strange going back to the school. I hadn’t been there since I went for a visit my freshman year of college. Everything looked like it used to; there hadn’t really been any noticeable improvements. (Except the gazebos in the courtyard.) The teachers basically told me it was because they just built a new, luxurious middle school, and they only had so much funding. They encouraged me to see the new middle school. (“The hallways are big enough to drive a semi through,” Mr. Fried said.) Maybe I’ll have to do that sometime soon.

Quote of the Day: “We’ve secretly replaced Matt’s regular laundry detergent with corn starch. Let’s see if he notices a difference.”