The teacher side of me is influenced strongly by the paternal side, so that the students whom I’ve known so well the past three years, whether in math classes, or hanging out in the Math Lab, or as part of the Math Team and Asian-American Club, have all become surrogate children. Thus every year at graduation–which is tomorrow as I write this–a lot of my “children” will be flying out of the nest for the first time and, inevitably for a high school teacher, out of my life as well. I guess it’s obvious to anybody who knows me that I will miss many of them:

> Vivien, with whom I spent a lot of lunch periods studying for SATs and the Advanced Placement Calculus BC test.

> Andy, one of my IM buddies as well as a fine editor of the school newspaper (yes, another of my activities!), who succumbed to the dark side of technological nerdishness, a far inferior state compared to bookwormness! ☺

> Gabriela, my Target Teach apprentice, who was delightful to work with and brightened my 7th period Honors Algebra 2 class whenever she was there.

> Rick–don’t call me Ricky–who was one of the finest presidents the Asian-American Club ever had, and whose nervousness at all our events both heartened me and made me chuckle at him, poor boy!

> Kelly, Aakash, Madhu, Kandy–the junk food queen–Dennis, I’ll miss every one of you.

But don’t anybody feel sorry for me. My students next year include Seema, Manal, Jessica, Naeema, Amy, and Rita, and I’m sure Preeti and Rabbit will still be visiting the Math Lab. As the older birds fly away, the new chicks join the nest. It’s great being a teacher!