I just read in the newspaper that one of my former students died in a car crash on New Year's Day. I didn't have her in class for very long (it was my first year of teaching and she transferred out), but it was still a shock. There are only a few things that I remember about her. The first day she came into my room, she told a group of senior boys, "She's not that hot." Ouch. She was talking about me, because supposedly I was the hot new teacher. She had long, blonde hair, and wore too much makeup. Later on, she wrote in her journal that she felt like she could trust me, and she proceeded to tell me all of this tragic stuff that happened in her life (losing her mother, being molested, being adopted, etc.) I remember thinking I should talk to her about it, and then she transferred to the alternative school and was gone.
She was the older sister of two of my other students, and the girlfriend of the older brother of another one of my students. I am really sad about this news. This is the first student I have ever known of who has died. The worst part about the whole thing is that it was her boyfriend who was driving, and he hit ice and the passenger side ended up crashing into the tree. You know he's going to blame himself for her death for the rest of his life.
I also recently read about one of the deans at my college dying of cancer. I talked to him more than once because of a mentoring program I was in, and he was the sweetest, kindess man. So it is another case of someone who died who I didn't know that well, but it still makes me sad.
Other than that, 2005 is turning out to be a pretty good year. More later.
