School pictures

What is it about school pictures that just makes us awkward looking?

I adore my niece.  I think she is beautiful.  I am curious where her upper lip went in this picture.  My mother has a folder of school pictures that are a chronology of haircuts and clothing styles.  They show my years of wearing hyper-color shirts, giant door-knocker earrings and lace bows in my hair.  Then there is the year of the afro-mullet.  Yes...I had a haircut worse than a regular mullet - an afro-mullet.  Just awful awkward smiles and uncomfortable eye twitches.  Clothes that were too itchy or too "cool".

School pictures are the a history of us trying to look our best and failing miserably.

And here is to my niece.  I love you very much.

Caught you!

I will admit that I take great pleasure in the awkward interactions I have with students when I have caught them doing something that they don't want me to see.  Usually, it is that I have caught one of the students that I work closely with drunk and doing something stupid.  I live basically on campus and on the nights that I work late or am out with friends, I walk down the hill to my house and pass countless students.  Usually these moments of passing are innocuous, pleasant and generally forgettable...but occasionally, I meet one of "my students".  I meet a student that I work closely with and they are in a position they do not want me to witness.

Tonight, I ran into SM with a group of friends.  I was walking home and he was just walking.  He was singing loudly and laughing.  He had clearly had a few beverages.  Then he sees me.  There is a moment where he struggles to make a decision about whether to ignore me or to acknowledge me.  He is torn but I make the decision for him and say "Hi SM"!!  I am perky and cheery.  I wave.  He is awkward but acknowledges me.  It doesn't matter the student, it is a similar story every time.

I keep walking reveling in the awkward encounter and chuckling as the sound of the student acknowledging to his peers that I am his advisor wafts down to my ears.  I enjoy the awkward interaction.