How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “Your boss just might know more than you do. Givem ‘em credit.”

Since nothing much happened today, I will follow up on my promise and post about what happened last night after my Battle of the Video Capture.

A few years ago, I volunteered as an instructor for the Presidential Classroom. It’s basically a live civics lesson for high school students who pay to come from all over the United States to spend a week in the Nation’s Capitol.

Volunteer instructors are paired up and assigned to a caucus of 40 students who they mentor and lead through all of the scheduled events for a week.

I had a great time and connected with my students, despite the program only being a week long. I announced that I wanted to keep in touch with anyone who wanted to do the same and gave out my personal contact information with the encouragement to keep in contact with me.

I had quite a few that took me up on this and one of them who goes by the name Oliver Twisted goes to a Catholic school and has been accepted to the Naval Academy where she’ll begin her training this year.

She had contacted me recently, telling me that her class was taking a field trip to Washington DC and wanted to know if I could come see her for a meal. Of course I agreed and after 2 years since the program, I looked forward to seeing her again.

Now there was a bit of a situation since on the surface, without the background, a 37-year-old man going to see an 18-year-old girl tends to get frowned upon. To me, it was no different than any friend that comes in town for business or pleasure and we make plans to meet up and eat a meal together. Add that to the fact that it was a public place, in the presence of all her classmates and assorted nuns and priests, and I didn’t see the problem with it. Our relationship was and is that of a student teacher and now that she’s going to the Naval Academy with aspirations of becoming a Marine one day, there was an extra facet of mentorship I thought I could offer.

I would have even brought my entire family except that my wife was gone all weekend. I wanted them all to meet O! but I had to settle on just bringing the kids.

So we drove the 1 ½ hours to show up at an Old Country Buffet. When we got there, the bus had just let out so the entrance was packed. I found O! and I was glad to see her again after a two year span.

We got our food and the four of us sat down. I enjoyed hearing her latest about what was going on with school and her thoughts about her upcoming Naval Academy year. We discovered that we both have an interest in programming although we both admit that neither of us is as good at it as we would like.

The kids were involved in our conversations and the fact that time just flew by spoke to the wonderful conversation we were having.

But time grew short and her classmates were getting up to get back to the bus. The time had gone by way too fast and I could see that the twang of regret I felt was reflected in O!’s eyes.

She wanted to give me a token of her appreciation for everything I had done for her over the last couple of years and even though I’m not Catholic, she gave me a little wooden frame that opened up to the Virgin Mary and a prayer (The Memorare of St. Bernard) that I promised I would keep at my desk and think of her every time I saw it. Which I will. And I do.

We said our hurried goodbyes but by this time, everyone else was out of the restaurant and a couple of people had already come out and informed her that they were leaving. As we were heading to the door, the head Priest was inbound and I hoped that she hadn’t pushed her luck. Just the fact that she had a Marine Captain and his kids join her for dinner probably qualified her for enough ridicule from her classmates in the first place.

And that was it. I had a really good time and even though we had just over an hour to talk, it was well worth the 3 hour drive.

I also dug out a shirt that she had commented on. I never thought the shirt was that bad but I think she described it as “heinous” so of course, I had to wear it.

Free Advice for Today: “Don’t say anything on a cordless or cellular telephone that you don’t want the world to hear.”