The "Memories Of A Favorite Former Student!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Day after Christmas, 2018, and Sally, my wife Carol's boss for many years at the Parish Resource Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and her daughter Reneé, as well as Reneé's daughter Lilly, made a visit to our home in Lancaster so that Reneé could visit with me.  She and her daughter were visiting her mother Sally for a few days in Lancaster and evidently after talking with her mom, and hearing about her mom's recent visit to our home for an evening meal, called and asked if Reneé could stop for a visit to catch up on the past with me.  It was in the late 1970s that I had Reneé in my Graphic Arts classes, as well as my photography class, at Manheim Township High School (MTHS) in nearby Neffsville, PA.  After teaching high school for 33 years I find that certain students stick out in my memory more than others.  Reneé was one of those favorite students and as a graduating senior at MTHS won the Stephen Humpreville Award as the best Industrial Arts (IA) student in her graduating class.  (For you real oldtimers, IA is the same as shop class while for the younger generation, IA is now called Tech Ed.)  Stephen was also a student of mine in the Industrial Arts program at MTHS and died tragically in an industrial accident while in high school.  His parents established a scholarship to be given to the best IA student every year at the school.  Reneé was the first female recipient of the award and was extremely proud of that fact as well she should have been.  Reneé went to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology to study Graphic Arts and began her career after graduation with a degree in Graphic Arts.  She gave her art teacher and myself the credit for her interest in the arts and graphic arts.  After graduating from RIT she worked as a sales person for Parker Printing.  She stayed in the graphic arts for eight years until she decided to head in a different career direction.  She returned to school and got Master degrees in both Art Therapy and Social Work.  The last time I had visited with her was eight years ago when she was living in Doylestown, Pennsylvania and operating an art therapy studio from her home.  She recently told me she took a career test and found with her education she would be suited for art therapy and psychology.  She has since moved to Quakertown, Pennsylvania and started a non-profit open studio called Art Z where she is using her skills in art as well as psychology to administer to her art clients.  On her Christmas stop with her mother, I showed her the collection of art that Carol and I have accumulated over the past 20 years of traveling in the Caribbean.  She once again thanked me for helping her see that the Graphic Arts was what she wanted to do as an occupation after her education was complete.  She has done just that and quite well according to her mother.  So you see, those students who were my favorite students in high school are now some of my favorite people as adults.  And, to have her tell me I was one of her favorite teachers in high school made my day and made me realize I chose the perfect job by being a teacher.  If only everyone could be as lucky as I!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.