I obviously have been reflecting on my past for some time. The Versions posts have not been fun to write. At the same time they have been tremendously therapeutic to write. I am not my past and my past is not me. However, your past does effect your future. About a month ago I ran into a bright spot from my past at the grocery store. I’m glad I encountered him.

In high school I encountered this bright spot. He was a long term substitute teacher This former attorney was an expert on military history and he and I hit it off immediately. He was a good teacher who brought the subject to life. He wasn’t as good as Mr. Zuck, but he was still a good teacher who had both a passion for the subject of history, but he had an incredible ability to convey it to students much like Mr. Zuck.

I had incredible teachers in junior high. In high school I had a famine of good teachers. There were no history classes or any classes that really suited my interests in high school, especially my Freshman year. In my Sophomore year I finally could take a class that interested me and that was World History. Unfortunately, the primary teacher for that class had to have knee surgery and he had to bow out for 9 weeks in the first semester of the class. I finally had something to be excited about with this class and both the substitute and the primary teacher gave me something to be excited about. They taught a subject I was good at and interested in. This was a happy interlude in an otherwise unhappy four years.

In high school I had the aspirations of becoming a lawyer and this teacher somewhat inspired me to pursue this direction. As things changed in my life I realized what he meant by leaving the practice of law because of corruption. My classmates who had an interest in the law like me were more or less interested in the dollars that some lawyers make and they weren’t so much interested in practicing the law to pursue a better society.

When I ran into him at the grocery store he looked tired, depressed, and unhappy. However he and I both shared some brief happiness together when we conversed a few weeks ago. I let him know that he was a bright spot in high school.