My mom is in town for my wedding this weekend. As such, she is staying at a local hotel. I went to the front desk to pick her up tonight and was met by a former student from East Central University. He had transferred to OU and is in the Poli-Sci department. Good kid. We caught up and he asked me what I was up to.
"Getting married. This weekend."
"Oh, um, congratulations!"
"I'm marrying a guy, Felipe. I'm not a lesbian."
He had the decency to blush.
The thing is that I allowed my students to make a bad assumption about me. Not bad as in I think lesbianism is bad, but bad as in poorly reasoned. Since I am over 30 and was not married and am highly independent, my students at the university tended to think that I am not heterosexual. I am fine with that. It is a testament to them to fight through their own social mores to want to take a second class with me. I was one of the most popular teachers not because of the way I look or how I am perceived, but in spite of it.
And that made me feel damn good. It also made me believe in the power of education, because seriously, Ada is in the podunk middle of nowhere.
Besides, there are way worse things than being a lesbian; it's not an insult to be perceived as such.
I explained this to Felipe and he shook his head at me. Still being his teacher.
I just had to share.
No comments:
Post a Comment