Teachers and Mentors....

Did you know that it's National Teachers' Day? Yeah, me neither, but it's one of those little random "holidays" printed on my Kansas City Calendar.

So it got me thinking about the teachers of my past. Not the teachers like parents, family, friends, but school teachers.

To be honest, a lot of them are kind of forgettable. My favs included my second and fifth grade teachers, my sophomore English teacher (died the year after I had her class, but inspired an unending love of English lit) and my junior year history teacher (I still email him every so often).

My college professors were pretty forgettable too, except for two of my history professors. I hated my Communications professors (all burn outs who couldn't make it in the "real world").

A few weeks ago, I ran into my History Advisor of my alma mater at a play. It was probably the most enjoyable conversation I had with the man in all the years I've known him. (Plus, it probably helps that he got married/laid and didn't talk to my breasts like he did for four years.)

I've been feeling kind of frazzled with the part-time Museum job on top of my usual 9 to 5 (yeah right, *just* 40 hrs a week). It was really good for me to remember why I still needed to be there. Just to do something I liked doing for me, not Darling, not Handsome, nobody but me and my intellectual/mental health.

One of my "teachers" I'll never forget is my erstwhile boss here at Regular Job. 5.5 years ago, I came into the company as his Marketing Coordinator and 2.5 years ago when he left, I became Marketing Manager. When I first started, it was my second ad job and I still didn't know anything about what I was doing. He and his damn red pen turned me into a much better designer and his Excel spread sheets and anal retentiveness turned me into a better planner, tracker, thinking marketer.

Old Boss started up his own agency about a year ago and we still keep in touch every so often. He's still a mentor (and a smart ass) to me even though we went seperate ways. I think he's stupid for leaving our company, but, I'm glad he's gone so I could have a chance to trust in myself/my decisions. So far so good...

Teachers are so important. One crappy teacher when you are young can destroy your learning in that subject forever. Just ask me about my 7th, 8th and 9th grade math teacher. I'm lucky I can do long division after that jack ass.

Anyway, I leave you with the incomparable singer/songwriter Harry Chapin (I know you've heard "Cat's in the Cradle" or "Taxi"...he's that guy) singing about how bad teachers can F you up.

Happy Teacher's Day, by the way.