Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Teenagers do notice things!

            I’ve really been running into a lot of former students lately. I ran into another former student who is now a junior and I had her in class back when she was in 7th grade.  

            I was talking to a group of former students and finding out how they have been doing and what plans they have for college. We talked for a bit and one of the girls was pretty quiet. When they all walked away the quiet girl stayed and said, “I thought that was you, but I wasn’t sure. When you started talking to us, I knew it was you. You’ve really lost a lot of weight.”

            I smiled and told her that I had lost about 80 pounds. I told her thanks for noticing. She then started asking what I had done to lose the weight. We talked for a little bit and I told her all about what I was doing, how I was doing it, and working out. Then she asked if I had a picture or anything to compare my old weight to my new weight.

            Now, the girl didn’t know this, but I always have an old picture in my purse.  I acted like she was in luck that I happened to have one with me. I handed her the picture and this was her response (no joke) “Holy shit…I mean dang…don’t get me in trouble for cussing, that was a huge shock… wow, this is awesome. I don’t remember you looking like this…you look younger…wow…wow…wow…good job…has it been hard?”

            I told her the teacherly thing. I told her it was hard, but worth it, and that some days are much easier than others. I really wanted to tell her that I missed having a beer whenever I wanted. After that she had to go, but it was a nice conversation. It was funny too. I always get a kick out of students swearing in front of me when it is accidental. Anyway, I love it when students do pay attention; even if it was only to my weight. 

6 comments:

  1. That is great - it is nice to feel like they are paying attention to something outside of themselves sometimes. Just because they really aren't wired to. And it is always nice when people notice that you have changed.

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  2. Aww, that's really cute. You've got to love kids, absolutely no filter, although as this post shows, sometimes that's a good thing ;)

    It really amazes me how much losing weight makes people look younger. Some of the transformations I've seen online are absolutely incredible! Keep up the great work!

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  3. Aww what a great compliment. And you know she was being totally honest!

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  4. such an awesome compliment.. you should be proud of yourself..Keep up the great work!

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  5. that is an awesome nsv!

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  6. So I'm loving more and more about this. First of all, you make me want to teach (well, not really). And now that I know the comment speak, the nsv is pretty cool. It's amazing the languages that technology has facilitate. Miss you like hell.

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