Remember back when I was counting down my favorite “teachable moments” earlier this year? It was my top 10 favorite moments from my teaching career. Remember “Greg” from Teachable Moment #9? His mother had reached out to me last year to catch up and I found out that she and her late husband had a burger restaurant. She invited me to come check it out. Today, on my last day of vacation, I did.
The Burger Shop is in Wake Forest, which is an hour and a half drive from where I live. My husband went back to work today and so I drove up there to see if I could reunite with “Greg”.
I was so excited! I was even going to make a whole video about it to post on Instagram. I took little snapshot videos and everything that I was going to compile together and do a voice over and it was going to be great!
I got there around 12:30 and found out that “Greg” wasn’t scheduled to be at work until the evening shift later today. His mom wasn’t there at all today. Man! I was actually afraid that might happen. I should have called first. But! I still had lunch and my burger and fries were still worth the drive. So was the freshly squeezed lemonade.
Before I left, I wrote a note for “Greg” telling him that I had been there and that I was proud of him for helping his mom with the restaurant. I put my email address on there in case he wanted to chat. I gave the note to the girl at the counter and left. I had told her that I was his teacher when he was in 3rd and 5th grade and she looked like she didn’t believe me. Now that I’m back home, I dug through my yearbooks and see that he was in the 5th grade in 2013. Kids are about 11 years old in that grade. So that was 12 years ago, which means “Greg” is in his 20s now. Maybe she thought teachers were supposed to look older, I don’t know. This is what I looked like when he was in my class that year:
Regardless, I wrote in my note that I would come back another time. And I will. I really do want to see him and find out what kind of adult he turned out to be. From talking to his mom, I know he’s a good one. I want to tell him what became of the turtles he kept bringing me. I want to ask him if he still sees auras. But most importantly, I just want him to know that I remember him, because he was a good kid then and still is now.
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