A Wedding

At the conclusion of this blog post, I invite you to watch the clip of Fred and Ginger...I mean Charles and Lauren....dancing at their wedding. I guarantee you will be delighted.

The wedding took place on Sunday in San Diego, and there I had the privilege of seeing three remarkable people I'd met nearly twenty years earlier, when I was a sixth grade teacher and they among the students. Lauren, the bride, was one of them; the other two were maid of honor Ming, and Parker, an essential guest. It was obvious even long ago these kids were extraordinary. They were quirky, creative, complicated, and unusually talented, they knew how to escape into books and imagination, and they were unafraid of being who they were. The start of my knowing them was also the start of my own career as a teacher, and I suppose we were all learning to navigate the strange border country known as middle school.

Sometimes there were hard times -- small dramas, real life tragedy, the usual confusions that accrue with growing up -- and I like to think that I was someone who was there for them. (I certainly know I tried.) There were also shining achievements, of course, and as the years went by, I watched my former students from a distance, pleased to have been a part of the village that raised them, and proud of their many accomplishments (that so quickly surpassed my own).

We didn't see each other often, but we seemed to have forged a lasting bond, and we managed to stay in touch, moving into friendship. It's the gift of having been a teacher.

And here they were at this wedding Sunday, all grown-up and dazzling. (My own dazzling daughter was there as well, all the way from England, and will be home with us for three weeks!) It was one of those occasions when you feel as though you have come full circle. There's history and continuity, community and love. I've been lucky like that. I thought about digging up a few pictures from a decade or longer ago...I have quite a few in an album someplace...but for now a couple of contemporary glimpses will suffice.