The ghosts of students past

I got hit thrice by former students this week, two of them in a work capacity. To think that little ol' me has taught people who are now dabbling in the business of journalism. Perhaps all my classroom diatribes against my social issues of choice were not ranted in vain.

One student's voice I immediately recognised, probably because I ran into him at our mutual alma mater's (and my former employer's) reunion carnival in May. Another student's voice sounded completely unlike how she sounds in person, so I spent the first five minutes of the conversation stammering in disbelief. The third student wisely SMSed me, so there was no doubt to her identity.

While it's always fun to be tracked down and entertained by former students, there comes with it the inevitable recognition that they have so many adventures still ahead of them --- while I'm still here, plodding away at my job, in the same place so they can easily track me down when they have free time.

Just read an email wherein another former student proclaimed that he's off to Spain, thence to Brown University. Wah!

The only solution to that is for me to leave work. Right. Now.