NYC story part 1 (really long)

sub story 1
Scott (my husband) and Patrick(his good friend) were in school together every year until eighth grade. Patrick would live with his grandmother during the school year and return to New York during the summer to live with his mom. That is until 9th grade when Patrick went to high school in New York . That's when Scott and Patrick lost touch. Over the years they ran into each other, once even being at The Magic Kingdom in Disney World, but they never exchanged phone numbers. This of course was before cell phones. What did we ever do w/o them? This was also before social networking. Jump forward now to about four years ago and the two fellas are young men, more mature and both with a Facebook account.....a lifelong friendship was renewed! Turns out, Patrick would return to Florida every year around the holidays and thankfully we have been added to his list of friends and family to visit. Two Christmas ago, he brought with him a lovely young lady named Beata. We liked her a lot! Then this past Christmas they shared with us their plans to get married this summer and wanted us to come to the wedding in New York City!

sub story 2
Seventeen years ago I became a teacher. My very first class was a group of 2nd graders. I believe a teacher's first class is always very special and very memorable. It was a class of about 24 students. I had some challenging boys AND some challenging girls. It was a class with some very sweet girls and some very sweet boys. It was a class with some generous parents AND some challenging parents. And it had parents I never met at all. I had moments where we stuck our hands in vegetable shortening to simulate what whale blubber would be like. We built a cave around the entrance of our doorway when we studied dinosaurs. I witnessed light bulbs when one young man discovered the joy of reading chapter books. And on the last week of school, we used baking soda and ginger ale to make our volcanoes erupt. Yep, a pretty memorable class.
But this class also had, one very special young man.


One who I would always describe him as "he came that way". He was so smart, and so friendly. He was so thoughtful, helpful and kind. He taught ME so much everyday. I also would always say, "he's great, but not because of anything I did." Well over the years, Khristian would come by to visit me. And every time, I'd tell him, "ya know, if you give me an invitation to your high school graduation, I'll be there." When he was in middle school, he began to play the trumpet with the middle school band. They would visit our elementary school. By then I was certain he was too old (and certainly was way too cool) but he'd wave at this former second grade teacher and it would make my day. Well, eventually I left Emerald Shores Elementary and of course I lost touch with Khristian. However, I kept tack of what year he would be graduating and if he stayed in the same high school, I knew what day their graduation was on......so I went. I couldn't imagine how I would find him, or if he'd even recognize me, but I went. Well, it certainly was easy to find him; he was Valedictorian! I was so happy for him. And so, I still couldn't imagine that he'd recognize me, or what would I say. After the ceremony Khristian was up at the podium so his family could take pictures; I waited.

Soon, he was giving hugs to friends and family; I still waited. But then, HE spotted me and now this huge, handsome and tall, young man picked me up, spun me around and said "you came, you came". He seemed really happy I was there!! Hee, hee!
Let me tell ya, at that time in my life, that was the best teacher booster event ever. I sure needed it!
Well, time passed, and more time passed until about 4 years ago, and just like Scott I too, started a Facebook account. And as was common when one started a FB account, you start searching for people who you wondered what happened to them. And low and behold, Khristian had a Facebook account too. Connecting with him again, was just as rewarding as before. He wrote me the nicest letter giving me credit for sparking his love of learning. Wow! Ain't that cool?!
So as I watched his posts on FB I knew he finished his degree at University of Florida, a Gator through and through! He then traveled to Europe that summer and finally accepting a position with Wells Fargo and now lives and works in Manhattan in New York City!