Why Students Can Sometimes Be Great

Today, I made a big mistake - I dropped off my students' tests at "Computer Services." I know it's 2006 and all, but here in the place of the fancy book-learnin' we still use "bubble sheets" and #2 pencils. As I was walking across campus, it started to rain. And not the misty, piddly, girls with curly hair say, "Oh! My hair!" kind of rain. This was horizontal, blinding, ha, ha, you suck for leaving your umbrella at home rain. And guess what my knee-jerk reaction was? I covered my head with, of course, the stack of tests. Then I got to the computer services place where a new guy, with a sweater vest and way too much power, lectured me about the stupid scanning machine and how the scanner was very fragile and special and my crappy wet tests would just ruin it. Have I no respect for the scanning machine? Bow down now, and apologize to the scanning machine. For God's sake, can't you appreciate the wonder that is technology?!!?

Don't you think that if a person is standing in front of you with mascara running down her face and completely, drowned-rat-sopping-wet that perhaps she already feels like a moron and doesn't need your help to feel even more "loser-y" than she already feels? Don't answer that. So I slosh dejectedly back to my building and wonder how I'm going to tell my students (the same students that I often lecture about being timely and responsible) that I don't have their tests yet? Because I didn't have an umbrella and chose to use their tests to cover my head.

Ironically, I bump into one of my students coming into my building. He has a large bag of Wendy's (this now explains why he typically leaves the room once per class period - only an hour and fifteen minutes - and comes back 10-15 minutes later) and says to me apologetically (I don't understand why he was apologizing), "I'm sorry, I have Wendy's."
Me: "Um, okay."
Him: "It's just that I'm really hungry."
Me (confused, because class doesn't start for an hour): "Did you bring me some?" (At this point, I didn't want any, I just wondered why he was telling me this.)
Him: "No, it's for me. Hey, didja get our tests yet?"
Me: (with great shame): "No. I screwed up and just got yelled at by some guy at the library."
Him: "So what. He's a guy at the library. They yell at me all the time. You don't see it making me any less cool, do you?"
Me: "No, that's true." And with that, he walked with great purpose into the basement of our building to eat Wendy's.

And I have to say, I felt great. Really. He's a guy at the library. You don't see it making me any less cool, do you?

(My apologies to members of my family who work in libraries.)