Saturday, December 8, 2012

Sorry to Steal Shane's Spotlight but...

Something strange happened to me under an hour ago.

Do you remember how I had some computer trouble a while back? Two random people on Facebook tried to friend me today. My first thought was, "Oh great....is there another bug on my computer?" I took the usual precautions, found nothing, and then started to peruse through my mailbox on Facebook. I wanted to make sure there weren't any strange outgoing mails being sent from my account.

There was no virus, but I stumbled upon an "Other" mailbox that I had no idea existed.

On March 21st of this year I received a message.

The message was from someone I taught at a computer camp when I was a newly graduated senior from high school.

"Hey,
This may sound pretty random, but 12 years ago I went to a computer science camp where I believe you were a counselor, at American University. You probably don't remember me. It was probably not a significant time for you, but it very much was for me. Freshman year of high school was one of the worst years of my life, and this camp was when it all started to change. I became fast friends with your sisters Megan and Kathleen. It was my first introduction to Computer Science and Japanese, and was the first time in years that I was in a genuinely creative, supportive environment. I remember there were many counselors, but you stood out as being competant without being condiscending (like the councelor from TJ), and not full of insane bullshit (like "Y'Carr").
So I'm writing to you now because, well, a) I wanted to thank you for contributing to a great environment that literally changed my life around, and b) I feel nastalgic tonight for some reason.

I'm also writing because even as an adult, my memories of the counselor "Y'Carr" are confusing. Y'Carr is in no way a Japanese name (which I know very well now), and everything just seemed so inconsistent. He had stories about hacking into NASA and Amazon and having 12 or so names. He claimed to be a bi-sexual and have a secret wife. I hear he was a pathological liar, which would make sense. I know it's friggin' 12 years after the fact, but I was wondering: What was up with that guy? What was his actual name? Do you remember any of this?

Anyway, I hope you and your sisters are still doing well!"

Of course, I immediately wrote back. I'm a teacher and we eat that "make a difference" stuff right up!

It just goes to show that God can use you even when you don't have the faintest clue you're being used. I'm elated.

+1 for God.

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