summatime

i have two students who are graduating summa cum laude this year. that means they have a GPA of 100 or higher. i was honored to be asked by both of them to attend tonight's summa reception, which consisted of 200-some-odd summa students from our school district and their chosen teachers, sitting in an auditorium together along with principals, school board members, and family. i thought it would just be teachers briskly walking across the stage with their students, getting certificates. i thought it would take an hour and a half, maybe two at the most. when the superintendent of our school district got up at the beginning and said, "tonight we will honor our summa students, and we'll hear from each of them a little bit about the teacher they've brought with them," i was a little dismayed, thinking, ugh, we'll be here forever, listening to a lot of brainiacs ramble on about their teachers. i looked at my watch-- seven o'clock. see you again at midnight, i told it, and braced myself.
the two summa students who invited me are both precious people. robyn transferred to our school as a junior. she is not the kind of person who is demonstrative about her thoughts or feelings. she's relatively quiet, and when i first directed her in a play i couldn't understand how she worked. her process of discovering the character was very slow, almost imperceptible. at first this translated as "she's not taking my notes! she's not doing anything!" but when it came time for dress rehearsals and performance, i realized that there had been a very subtle, interesting evolution at work. i am always pleasantly surprised and satisfied with her work. last week she left a sweet note of appreciation in my mailbox at school. it brought tears to my eyes, partly because it was a surprise-- i'd never known i'd helped her, or made any impression on her at all. it was a joy being onstage with her tonight. she finished her short speech with something like, "and he makes me very happy!"
jared was in the first play i directed in the black box, a pirandello piece about gossip. he came in during the last two weeks of rehearsal, replacing the old mayor, who found himself unable to pass latin. jared had a sort of awkward, reedy voice and an incredibly bright attitude about everything. in the two years since that first play he has worked on my tech crew for just about every show. when i give him a job he is meticulous about it-- like painting cracks on the sidewalk in the exact way they were rendered in the sketches. he is very sensitive and perceptive, and picks up on people's vibes. he also says hilarious things like, "that makes me feel happier than a mug full of unicorn giggles!" his tongue is in his cheek, but at the same time there's an innocence to him that is brilliantly refreshing.
the evening of summa students giving little speeches about their teachers wasn't dull or distressing in the least. i didn't even get tired of clapping every two minutes. some of the speeches were funny, some were tear-jerkers, some were both. some were memorized, some read off note cards, and some improvised. expressions on teachers' faces were anything from stolid to giddy to embarrassed to anxious. i saw a lot of beauty going on up there. and once again, i felt blessed to be asked to stand next to my students and support them, and to receive the beautiful gift of their appreciation.
i forgot to check my watch to see when it was over. must have been around ten. i've got another nice memory to store in my banks.