A few days ago while I was waiting for my appointment at the ophthalmologist a lady, almost my age, asked me if I had been a teacher. I told her yes. She continued chatting and asked me again if I had worked in Mariara, a small town in central Venezuela. I confirmed again. Finally that lady asked me my name.
With all the data complete, the lady came to the conclusion that I had been her teacher in the second year of high school, in 1975.
What followed was a long conversation about those wonderful years, she told me things that had already escaped my mind.
All the time I felt very sorry because I could not remember the name or the face of the one who had been one of my first students when I started working as a high school teacher.
Experiences like that happen to me all the time. Frequently someone stops me on the street, in the supermarket, or in any public place and asks me, usually with great affection, if I am Professor Irvin. Some people I remember and some people I don't.
There is nothing unusual about such encounters for someone like me who spent more than forty years in youth and adult education.
In that long time I have had contact with thousands of students from both high school and college, most of them now adults who have gone on to lead fruitful lives.
To know that in some way I have been present in the lives of so many people is something that makes me feel deeply proud.
When you are a professor, it is inevitable that you impact people's lives. There are many hours spent together, many topics are discussed, and young people have the virtue of being sincere and have no reservations about talking about very personal and intimate matters.
It is inevitable that in so many conversations, the way of being of each one is revealed and the valuations of each one's life are revealed.
It causes me great emotion when one of these students, as was the case of the lady I mentioned above, tells me that she remembers something I said and that this word, heard at an opportune moment, helped her to rethink her options or to make an important decision. There is no greater pride than knowing that you have been useful to others.
I am also very proud to have been able to guide my children. I was by no means a perfect father, I recognize that I made many mistakes, especially with the older ones, with whom I was very severe, strict and not very conciliatory.
However, both the three boys and the girl, who is the youngest, recognize that it has been important for them to have had a home where things such as respect for others, the need for personal effort, and the importance of merit to make their way in life were valued.
Those values were planted in them and now they try to strengthen them with their daughters.
I am convinced that almost everything I have achieved in life I owe to my spirit of tenacity, I have not been quiet until I reached the goal, being like that is another great source of pride for me.
The truth is that I have no idea how I got that strength to not give up in the face of adversity, maybe I inherited it from my mother who has been a very tenacious woman and has never been afraid of the stones in the road, her way of facing life has been a great example for all of us, her children, grandchildren, and great-granddaughters.
I am publishing this post motivated by the initiative proposed by my friend @ericvancewalton, Memoir Monday, in the week thirty-four. For more information click on the link.
Thank you for your time.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Logo creado por @themanualbot