Voice of Will: What are they thinking?

2006-10-05 - 11:05 p.m.
have you ever had one of those moments when you are thinking, "WOW, people look up to me" followed by a "WTF are they thinking?"

Well I got 4 letters in the past week all from people I know who have told me they admire me. me? huh? what did I do? appaerently just being me.

3 were from former students in china. they all said I was the best teacher they ever had. Wow. That I "changed my life" so deeply they now are working to get masters degrees because they now believe in themselves. I just told them how special they were, and showed them. I tried to provide concrete examples, and tried to show them to think outside the box. Apparently by doing that, it makes me a "fantastic" teacher.

lets get this straight, i:m a good teacher. I am enthusiastic, and I try my best to teach the material I have to the students because they DESERVE it. But that is what I expect from my teachers, so how is that so different? I guess it is because most teachers in china dont do those things. If that is the case then I pity the students there. But I appreciate how my former students still listen to me, still ask for advice. I feel like the character in Kurasawa's madadaio, where the students come back to their professor every couple of years to ask for advice.
The other compliment was from a friend who told me he admired being a parent in a foreign country and all the things that implied. My reply wask, I am doing what I have to, and that I admire him for his family and support in the states. But I guess we see what we want to see in our friends, and we gloss over our own strengths.
but it does feel good to be recognized.

Will