[Another semester comes to a close this week, and this time for my usual end-of-semester reflections series I wanted to highlight stand-out days from my classes. Leading up to a weekend off for a very stand-out reason!]
Yesterday
I wrote about my favorite discussion in one of my First-Year Writing II
sections—but when it comes to my favorite day in Writing II this semester, and
indeed in any course this semester, and quite possibly in any course ever, it’s
a tie between two other moments that complemented each other quite beautifully
and movingly:
--In
February, my sons were able to come to campus with me for the first time since
Spring 2019, and probably the last time together as my older son will be headed
off to his own first year of college in a few short (so, so short) months. Taking
no names at the all-you-can-eat dining hall was definitely the highlight for
them, but for me seeing them seated at a desk in the back of my afternoon Writing
II section, and flashing back to all the times they’ve come to campus and
classes with me since I rocked my older son in his car carrier at the first
meeting of my Summer 2006 Grad class, was just about the most beautiful thing I
could imagine.
--But
pretty darn close was my other special guest in that same section, just a few weeks
later: my fiancé. We’re not online/on social media with our relationship, so I
haven’t talked much about us in this space. But she’s my favorite (non-offspring)
person and my partner in everything I do and am, including my teaching, and it
was so good to have her there, most especially in the same room where my sons
had been with me as well. The past and the future, right there in my Spring
2024 present—that’s some stand-out stuff!
Special
post this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Semester reflections or other work you’d share?
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