christmas seems to always turn out to be a season not to be jolly, falalalala. for me, health issues seem to always crop their ugly heads at this time of year...and nine years ago was no exception. out of the blue i suddenly discovered that i would have to have a hysterectomy.
i was headed to the ob/gyn to get the happy news and had an hour to kill before my appointment. since i was on the other side of town and near a Best products store, i went in and was in line to purchase a toaster when i was nearly flattened by a tall, happy young man who was yelling "MRS. YOUNG! MRS. YOUNG!"
the store was packed and i was standing in a long line with the toaster when this manchild wrapped me up in a huge hug, toaster and all! the next thing he asked me was "do you remember me?" I did remember him. Then he spoke the words of the teacher's nightmare- "what's my name!"
"michael!" i replied.
and yes, i did remember him. he had been one of my 9th grade students who had distinguished himself by being a perfect pain in the butt almost every day of class.
Michael Brooks proceeded to hug me again and said "me and Rico have been trying to find you for so many years! i just wanted you to know i had turned out all right!"
after 9th grade, michael and his classmate and friend, rico, had been sent via redistricting to another high school and i had never seen him again. while i hadn't given it all that much thought, michael had, and he reminded me in a rapid fire staccato about why he wanted me to know what had happened to him.
"do you remember that time you took me out into the hall and jacked me up against the lockers? You told me..." and on he went with a perfect recitation of everything i had said to him in the hall that day. i did remember taking him into the hall and yelling at him, but i certainly didn't remember it verbatim. michael did.
"i want you to know," he said, "that next year when i went to meadowbrook i thought about what you said, and i straightened up my act. i got A's and B's on my report card and i graduated and join the army! and when i was a senior, my little brother was a 9th grader and he kept messing up like me, and i was all over him. he screwed up like i did, but he is doing better now!"
basically, what i had said to him, as i said to countless other "screwups," was that he was worth saving and he needed to get his act together. but i wasn't going to put up with any more of his mess in the classroom. i cared about him, but not enough that i was going to continue to allow him to wreck the class like he was at the time. he needed to grow up and stop acting like a fool.
and here he was in the Best products store, NOT doing his job while he talked to me. he had indeed gone into the army and served two years, but had injured his knee and was then working there over christmas while looking for a job. he and rico were still friends. he was happy. i finally had to remind him that he had a job to do right then or he would get fired! grinning, he went back to the cashier's line and i headed off, toaster in hand, to get the news that my childbearing days were over and i was in for some major surgery.
but what i was thinking about when i went to my car was how god had provided me with another angel at just the time that i needed one. what i was about to face was going to be life changing and i could have gotten really depressed about it. but michael's bear hug in a store and his message that i had helped change his life reminded me that, once again, we are the proverbial stone in the big life pond, and we never know where the ripples will go or who they will affect. in that way, christmas, and life got better. god bless michael brooks wherever he is...
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